Diffusion tensor imaging in cerebral tumor diagnosis and therapy.
Diffusion-weighted MR images and their analysis using the tensor model open up many new possibilities for tissue characterization, surgical planning, and treatment follow-up in patients with cerebral neoplasms. These possibilities are only just beginning to be fully explored. This article reviews the physical principles underlying diffusion tensor imaging (DTI); the various postprocessing methods available for DTI data in the context of tumor imaging; the commonly encountered patterns of tumor-related alteration to cerebral white matter, as depicted by directionally encoded color maps; and the current state of the art in DTI-based tumor diagnosis and treatment planning.
Field
Aaron S
AS
Departments of Radiology and Biomedical Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA. as.field@hosp.wisc.edu
Alexander
Andrew L
AL
D016880:Anisotropy; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D010347:Patient Care Planning; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity