Perfusion MR imaging for initial diagnosis and follow-up of brain tumors

Object. - To discuss the pertinency of perfusion MR imaging for initial diagnosis and follow up of brain tumors. Methodology. - Dynamic susceptibility contrast MR imaging was applied. Images were thus obtained with intensities proportional to the cerebral blood volume (CBV). Relative cerebral blood volume (rCBV) maps were then generated by normalizing the signal intensities with respect to measurements made in healthy tissue. Results. - The method provided interesting data for establishing the differential diagnosis between different kinds of lesions, in particular between lymphoma and pilocytic astrocytoma, and for grading gliomas. Discussion and conclusion. - Limits of the approach are discussed, in particular with respect to quantification aspects and interpretation of the results. The approach could be particularly useful for grading oligodendrogliomas, for which histological diagnosis on biopsy is sometimes difficult.