title: Assessment of malignancy in gliomas by 3T 1H MR spectroscopy .
abstract: The purpose of this study was to assess clinical 1H MR spectroscopy (MRS) as a noninvasive method for evaluating brain tumor malignancy at 3T high-field system. Using 3T MRI/MRS system, localized water-suppressed single-voxel technique in patients with brain tumor (i.e., gliomas) was employed to evaluate spectra with peaks of N-acetyl aspartate (NAA), choline-containing compounds (Cho), creatine/phosphocreatine (Cr) and lactate. On the basis of Cr, these peak areas were quantitated as a relative ratio. The variation of metabolite measurements of the designated region in 10 normal volunteers was less than 10%. Normal ranges of NAA/Cr and Cho/Cr ratios were 1.67+/-018 and 1.16+/-0.15, respectively. NAA/Cr ratio of gliomas was significantly lower than that of the normal tissues (P= .005), but Cho/Cr ratio of gliomas was significantly higher (P= .001). Cho/Cr ratio of high-grade gliomas was significantly higher than that of low-grade gliomas. The present study demonstrated that the neuronal degradation or loss was observed in all gliomas. Higher-grade glioma was correlated with higher Cho/Cr ratio, indicating a significant dependence of Cho levels on malignancy of gliomas. Our results suggest that clinical 1H MR spectroscopy could be useful to predict tumor malignancy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, The Catholic University of Korea, South Korea.
authors.forename: Sin-Soo
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Jeun
authors.forename: Moon-Chan
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Bum-Soo
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Jae-Mun
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Sung-Taek
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.forename: Chang-Hyun
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.forename: Soo-Yeol
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Bo-Young
authors.initials: BY
authors.lastname: Choe
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001224:Aspartic Acid / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000378:metabolism; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry / Q000175:diagnosis*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002794:Choline / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D005910:Glioma / Q000737:chemistry / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D019344:Lactic Acid / Q000378:metabolism; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010725:Phosphocreatine / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D010725:Phosphocreatine; D001224:Aspartic Acid; D019344:Lactic Acid; C000179:N-acetylaspartate; D002794:Choline