Utility of functional diffusion maps to monitor a patient diagnosed with gliomatosis cerebri. J Neurooncol 2010 May;97(3):419-23
Date
10/09/2009Pubmed ID
19813078Pubmed Central ID
PMC2956408DOI
10.1007/s11060-009-0018-yScopus ID
2-s2.0-77953290881 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 14 CitationsAbstract
Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWI) is a sensitive imaging biomarker for tumor cellularity. Functional diffusion maps (fDMs), which examine voxel-by-voxel changes in the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) calculated from serial DWIs, have previously been applied to regions of contrast-enhancement; however, application of fDMs to non-enhancing brain tumors has not been pursued. In this case study we demonstrate the utility of applying fDMs to regions of abnormal FLAIR signal intensity in a patient diagnosed with gliomatosis cerebri: a relatively rare, infiltrative, non-enhancing brain tumor. The absolute volume of hypercellularity extracted from fDMs was useful in tracking tumor growth, which correlated in time with a progressive decline in neurological status despite no change in traditional magnetic resonance images. Results of this study demonstrate the value of fDMs, applied to regions of FLAIR abnormal signal intensity, for localizing regions of hypercellularity and for monitoring overall tumor status.
Author List
Ellingson BM, Rand SD, Malkin MG, Schmainda KMAuthor
Kathleen M. Schmainda PhD Professor in the Biophysics department at Medical College of WisconsinMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
AdultDiffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Female
Follow-Up Studies
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Neoplasms, Neuroepithelial
