Background/aim: To verify perfusion differences in white matter adjacent to glioblastomas and metastatic tumors in dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) 3T-magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using gradient echo (GRE) T1 techniques.
Materials and methods: A retrospective comparative study was carried out on adults with glioblastoma (n=67) and brain metastases (n=31). In each patient, conventional 3T-MRI and DCE-MRI with 25 acquisitions of GRE-T1 were performed. The initial area under the contrast-uptake curve (iAUC) and transfer constant (Ktrans) in peritumoral regions of the white matter were evaluated using T1 pharmacodynamic modeling software.
Results: Statistically significantly higher relative iAUC (p<0.001) and Ktrans (p<0.01) values were recorded for peritumoral white matter near glioblastomas compared to that near metastases: 2.29 (SD=1.11) and 2.12 (SD=1.05) vs. 0.96 (SD=0.31) and 1.18 (SD=0.35), respectively.
Conclusion: In comparison to Ktrans, the iAUC obtained by DCE-MRI is more suitable for assessing glioblastomas because it better reflects pharmacokinetic peritumoral changes. Increased iAUC in white matter near to tumor generally indicates glioblastoma, however, a low level does not exclude it.
Keywords: Glioblastoma; brain metastases; dynamic contrast-enhanced; magnetic resonance; perfusion; white matter infiltration.
Copyright© 2018, International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. George J. Delinasios), All rights reserved.