title: Quantification of tumor vessels in glioblastoma patients using time-of-flight angiography at 7 Tesla: a feasibility study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To analyze if tumor vessels can be visualized, segmented and quantified in glioblastoma patients with time of flight (ToF) angiography at 7 Tesla and multiscale vessel enhancement filtering.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twelve patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma were examined with ToF angiography (TR = 15 ms, TE = 4.8 ms, flip angle = 15°, FOV = 160 × 210 mm(2), voxel size: 0.31 × 0.31 × 0.40 mm(3)) on a whole-body 7 T MR system. A volume of interest (VOI) was placed within the border of the contrast enhancing part on T1-weighted images of the glioblastoma and a reference VOI was placed in the non-affected contralateral white matter. Automated segmentation and quantification of vessels within the two VOIs was achieved using multiscale vessel enhancement filtering in ImageJ.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Tumor vessels were clearly visible in all patients. When comparing tumor and the reference VOI, total vessel surface (45.3 ± 13.9 mm(2) vs. 29.0 ± 21.0 mm(2) (p<0.035)) and number of branches (3.5 ± 1.8 vs. 1.0 ± 0.6 (p<0.001) per cubic centimeter were significantly higher, while mean vessel branch length was significantly lower (3.8 ± 1.5 mm vs 7.2 ± 2.8 mm (p<0.001)) in the tumor.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  ToF angiography at 7-Tesla MRI enables characterization and quantification of the internal vascular morphology of glioblastoma and may be used for the evaluation of therapy response within future studies.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Neuroradiology, University of Heidelberg Medical Center, Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany; Department of Radiology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Radbruch
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Neuroradiology, University of Heidelberg Medical Center, Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Eidel
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Heidelberg Medical Center, Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Benedikt
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wiestler
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Neuroradiology, University of Heidelberg Medical Center, Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Paech
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Neuroradiology, University of Heidelberg Medical Center, Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Sina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Burth
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Neuroradiology, University of Heidelberg Medical Center, Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Philipp
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kickingereder
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Neuroradiology, University of Heidelberg Medical Center, Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany; Department of Neurology, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Martha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nowosielski
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Neuroradiology, University of Heidelberg Medical Center, Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Philipp
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bäumer
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Heidelberg Medical Center, Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wick
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Heinz-Peter
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Schlemmer
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Neuroradiology, University of Heidelberg Medical Center, Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bendszus
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Medical Physics, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ladd
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Medical Physics, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Armin Michael
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Nagel
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Neuroradiology, University of Heidelberg Medical Center, Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Sabine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Heiland
mesh_terms: D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000098:blood supply*; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005909:Glioblastoma / Q000098:blood supply*; D006801:Humans; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography; D011446:Prospective Studies