[Mapping of the motor-sensory cortex by functional magnetic resonance tomography in frontoparietal tumors]

The potentialities of functional magnetic resonance imaging (FM-RI) in the preoperative mapping of the motor-sensory cortex of the brain in 24 patients with frontoparietal tumors and 5 healthy volunteers were studied. A good reproducibility of results was achieved while using a simple irritation paradigm as finger flexion-extension. The obtained activation maps were projected to the region of anterior and posterior central gyri and to the central sulcus. Imposition of the maps of motor-sensory cortical activation with routine T1-weighed images allows a surgeon to gain an insight into the mutual location of a tumor and a functionally significant portion of the cortex, by reducing the intraoperative risk of damage to this area. The intraoperative determination of the central sulcus by the evoked potential method in 4 patients confirmed the results obtained after FMRI. The relationship of the obtained activation maps to the presence of venous structures in the area concerned requires further studies on the modes of clarifying the site of functionally significant cortical areas in the brain.