Comparison of Relative Cerebral Blood Volume and Proton Spectroscopy in Patients with Treated Gliomas

A, The measured signal versus time for a moderately enhancing region of a recurrent anaplastic astrocytoma. Enhancement of the signal after the bolus arrival is due to the leakage of contrast agent into the extravascular space.

B, The vascular concentration versus time corrected for the leakage of contrast agent into the tissue for the ROI described in A. The corrected rCBV (shaded area) is twice that of normal white matter.

A, The measured signal versus time for a contrast-enhancing region with Cho/normal Cho = 0.4.

B, The vascular concentration after correction for leakage (squares) and model fit (smooth line) versus time for the ROI described in A. The calculated rCBV (shaded area) is one fourth the rCBV of normal white matter.

A and B, Contrast-enhanced T1-weighted image (32/8/1) (A) and rCBV map (B) for a patient with glioblastoma multiforme. The rCBV is increased in the region coincident with contrast-enhancement on the T1-weighted image and decreased in the nonenhancing region with possible tumor/edema/post-treatment effects. The contrast-enhancing region was resected and the histologic examination indicated recurrent tumor

Correlations of MR spectroscopy (MRSI) and rCBV for regions interpreted on the conventional MR images for all gliomas. There was a strong correlation (P < .001) between the rCBV assessed from the maps and their corresponding spectra. In particular, no clear tumor spectral pattern was found in the regions with rCBV below normal. Tumor spectral patterns were found in 15 of 22 regions with elevated rCBV; the remaining seven regions had spectral patterns suggestive of possible tumor. Regions on the rCBV map were determined to be lower than, equal to, or higher than the rCBV of normal-appearing contralateral white matter remote from tumor and outside the treatment port

A–D, Contrast-enhanced T1-weighted (32/8/1) image (A) permeability-weighted image (B), rCBV map (C), and corresponding proton spectra (D) for a patient with recurrent anaplastic astrocytoma. Note that the intensity of the rCBV map is markedly lower in the regions of reduced intensity posterior to the contrast-enhanced T1-weighted image, which may correspond to a region of edema or infiltrative nonenhancing tumor. The 2 × 2 array of proton spectra from voxels corresponding to the contrast-enhancing lesion indicate tumor, as evidenced by elevated levels of Cho, negligible NAA, and a resonance corresponding to lactate or lipid

A–D, T1-weighted (32/8/1) (A) and T2-weighted (2500/30/1) (B) images resampled to the resolution of the rCBV map (C) and corresponding spectra (D) of a patient with an oligoastrocytoma. Spectra with elevated Cho and decreased NAA coincide with the abnormality on the T2-weighted image. The abnormal regions on the conventional T1- and T2-weighted images were interpreted to be areas of possible tumor, post-treatment changes, and/or edema, whereas the rCBV map was elevated relative to normal white matter and the spectra showed a tumor pattern. Therefore, conventional MR imaging was not specific for the presence of tumor, whereas both the rCBV map and the proton spectra indicated tumor. Note also the difficulty of assessing increased microvascularity near the middle cerebral artery on the rCBV map. This case is typical for low-grade tumors and unusual for most treated higher-grade tumors, because there are regions of hyperintensity on the rCBV map in nonenhancing regions