Vessel Size Imaging is Associated with IDH Mutation and Patient Survival in Diffuse Lower-Grade Glioma

Patients with isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) mutant gliomas have better survival and appear to be more sensitive to chemotherapy than their IDH wild-type counterparts. We attempted to assess the correlations of vessel size imaging (VSI) values with IDH mutation status and patient survival in diffuse lower-grade glioma (LGG).

We enrolled 60 patients with diffuse LGGs, among which 43 had IDH-mutant tumors. All patients underwent VSI examination and VSI values for active tumors were calculated. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were established to evaluate the detection efficiency. Logistic regression was employed to determine the ability of variables to discriminate IDH mutational status. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox proportional hazards models were utilized to estimate the correlations of VSI values and other risk factors with patient survival.

We observed that VSI values were lower in IDH-mutant LGGs than IDH wild-type LGGs. The VSImax and VSImean values had AUC values of 0.7305 and 0.7401, respectively, in distinguishing IDH-mutant LGGs from IDH wild-type LGGs. Logistic regression showed that VSImean values, age and tumor location were associated with IDH-mutant status, and the formula integrating the three factors had an AUC value of 0.7798 when distinguishing IDH-mutant LGGs from IDH wild-type LGGs. Moreover, LGG patients with high VSI values exhibited worse survival rates than those with low VSI values for both progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression analysis suggested that IDH mutation status, VSImean values and multiple lesions or lobes were risk factors for PFS of LGG patients.

VSI value is associated with IDH genotype and maybe an independent predictor of the survival of patients with LGGs.