[Assessment of radiotherapy effects on brain tumors by dynamic susceptibility contrast MR imaging]

Dynamic susceptibility contrast MR imaging(DSC MRI) was performed on eleven patients with brain tumors before and after radiotherapy. Their confirmed diagnoses were as follows: hemangioendothelioma(n = 1), meningioma(n = 1), low grade astrocytoma(n = 1), glioblastoma(n = 2), and brain metastasis(n = 6). The purpose of this study is to determine whether this technique is clinically useful for monitoring radiotherapeutic effect on brain tumors. Region of interest(ROI) analyses were performed on both the brain tumor and the contralateral normal area to evaluate the therapeutic effect semiquantitatively. The calculated subtraction images, rCBV maps, were also produced for the visual evaluation of the change of tumor vascular beds. The results showed that DSC MRI was clinically useful because of the capability to offer additional functional information.