MR Perfusion Imaging of Intracranial Tumors. A Retrospective Study of 218 Patients

This retrospective study evaluated magnetic resonance (MR) perfusion imaging in the study of intracranial tumors; 218 patients were studied with 509 MR examinations. The first aim was to establish the usefulness of perfusion imaging for the differential diagnosis between neoplastic tissue and other lesions both in the first MR examination and in the post therapeutic controls (differentiation of tumor recurrence from radionecrosis). Then we evaluated the presence of infiltrating neoplastic tissue in CBV maps outside the enhancement area to differentiate infiltrating gliomas from metastases. In addition, post surgical evaluation was performed to identify residual neoplastic tissue, mainly if bleeding or inflammatory post surgical cerebral damage did not allow a definitive diagnosis with conventional morphologic images. Lastly, it was assessed whether hypervascularization (evaluated in CBV maps) is a favourable prognostic factor for a positive outcome to radiotherapy. The diagnostic gain of perfusion imaging in all these cases was established evaluating our case records.