Pre-operative grading of intracranial glioma. Comparison of MR-determined cerebral blood volume maps with thallium-201 SPECT

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Abstract
To compare the accuracy of MR-determined cerebral blood volume (CBV) maps with SPECT imaging with thallium-201 in pre-operative grading of intracranial glioma. Nineteen patients (7 female and 12 male, mean age 46.8 years) with intracranial gliomas were examined with MR perfusion imaging pre-operatively. Sixteen of these patients were also examined with SPECT imaging with thallium-201. The tumour to contralateral white matter NI (negative integral) and tracer uptake ratios were evaluated. The ratios in high-grade and low-grade tumours were compared. The maximum CBV ratios of grades I and II gliomas (2.958+/-2.217) were significantly lower than the maximum CBV ratio of grades III and IV (9.484+/-4.520), p<0.001. There was no statistical difference when CBV ratios of grades I and II (p=0.381), grades II and III (p=0.229) and grades III and IV (p=0.476) gliomas were compared. Thallium SPECT imaging showed no difference in tumour uptake ratio between low-grade and high-grade gliomas (p=0.299). MR-determined NI was useful for pre-operative grading of intracranial gliomas but SPECT thallium-201 imaging was not.