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Minimum apparent diffusion coefficients in the evaluation of brain tumors
Omer Kitis1, Hakan Altay, Cem Calli
1Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, Ege University, 35100 Bornova, Izmir, Turkey. okitis@med.ege.edu.tr
Objective:
To determine whether diffusion-weighted imaging by using minimum apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC(min)) values could differentiate various brain tumors including gliomas, metastases, and lymphomas.
Materials And Methods:
We examined 65 patients with histologically or clinically diagnosed brain tumors (12 low-grade gliomas, 31 high-grade gliomas, 14 metastatic tumors, and 8 lymphomas) using a 1.5 T MR unit. On diffusion-weighted imaging, the ADC(min) values were measured within the tumors and mean values were evaluated regarding statistical differences between groups.
Results:
The ADC(min) values of low-grade gliomas (1.09+/-0.20 x 10(-3)mm(2)/s) were significantly higher (p<.001) than those of other tumors. There were no statistical significant differences between glioblastomas (0.70+/-0.16 mm(2)/s), anaplastic astrocytomas (0.77+/-0.21 mm(2)/s), metastases (0.78+/-0.21 mm(2)/s), and lymphomas. But, lymphomas had lower mean ADC(min) values (0.54+/-0.10mm(2)/s) than high-grade gliomas and metastases.
Conclusion:
The ADC measurements may help to differentiate low-grade gliomas from high-grade gliomas, metastases, and lymphomas. Although there is no statistical difference, lymphomas seem to have marked restriction in diffusion coefficients.
