Purpose: Differentiation of high-grade gliomas and solitary brain metastases is an important clinical issue because the treatment strategies differ greatly. Our study aimed to investigate the potential value of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in differentiating high-grade gliomas from brain metastases using a meta-analytic approach.
Materials and methods: We searched Pubmed, Embase and the Cochrane Library for relevant articles published in English. Studies that both investigated high-grade gliomas and brain metastases using DTI were included. Random effect model was used to compare fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) values in the two tumor entities.
Results: Nine studies were included into the meta-analysis. In the peritumoral region, compared with brain metastases, high-grade gliomas had a significant increase of FA (SMD = 0.47; 95% CI, 0.22-0.71; P<0.01) and a significant decrease of MD (SMD = -1.49; 95% CI, -1.91 to -1.06; P<0.01). However, in the intratumoral area, no significant change in FA (SMD = 0.16; 95% CI, -0.49 to 0.82; P = 0.73) or MD (SMD = 0.34; 95% CI, -0.91 to 1.60; P = 0.59) was detected between gliomas and metastases.
Conclusions: High-grade gliomas may be distinguished from brain metastases by comparing the peritumoral FA and MD values. DTI appears to be a promising tool in diagnosing solitary intracranial lesions.