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Jannie P. Wijnen¹, Dennis WJ Klomp¹, Arend Heerschap¹

¹Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, Netherlands

Although ³¹P MRS of tumors in humans provides more relevant information on phospholipid metabolism than ¹H MRS it is hampered by sensitivity limitations. In this study we demonstrate the feasibility of an optimized localized ¹H-³¹P polarisation transfer method to examine phosphorylated compounds in brain tumors with increased sensitivity and resolution at 3T. The changes observed in tumor tissue for ratios of individual phosphomonoester and diester compounds may be valuable biomarkers for tumor diagnosis and treatment follow up.

Inas S. Khayal¹, ², Colleen McGue¹, Soonmee Cha¹, Susan M. Chang¹, Roland G. Henry¹, Sarah J. Nelson¹

¹University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California , USA

The goal of this study was to develop and validate a two b-value diffusion sequence capturing the deviation from mono-exponential decay signal (dS) in a time efficient clinical scan; and to test how this signal can differentiate tumor (contrast enhancing lesion) from edema (non-enhancing lesion) as compared to the conventional apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and fractional anisotropy (FA) in high grade gliomas. This technique shows spatial variation within enhancing and non-enhancing lesions which may be of interest for tumor characterization and may be utilized in distinguishing progressive tumor from treatment response. Further studies will verify this variation with image-guided biopsy.

Craig J. Galbán¹, Daniel A. Hamstra¹, Charles R. Meyer¹, Timothy D. Johnson¹, Pia C. Sundgren¹, Christina Tsien¹, Theodore S. Lawrence¹, Larry Junck¹, David J. Ross¹, Alnawaz Rehemtulla¹, Brian D. Ross¹, Thomas L. Chenevert¹

¹University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

We ascertained if diffusion MRI, by functional diffusion mapping (fDM), could directly predict patient survival. Sixty patients with high grade glioma undergoing radiation therapy were enrolled in a study of intra-treatment MRI 1, 3, and 10 weeks after the initiation of treatment. Compared to conventional neuro-imaging, fDM provided an earlier assessment of equal predictive value. While the combination of fDM and radiological response provided a more accurate prediction of patient survival than either metric alone.

Mohanraja Kumar¹, Zdravka Medarova¹, Pamela Pantazopoulos¹, Anna Moore¹

¹Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, USA

One of the key challenges hindering effective therapy against brain cancer is defined by the inability to detect brain tumors at an early stage. With this in mind, we designed a novel membrane-permeant contrast agent, MN-MPAP, which consists of a superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles, for MR imaging, labeled with the near-infrared dye Cy5.5, for near-infrared optical imaging, and conjugated to myristoylated polyarginine peptides (MPAP), as a membrane translocation module. In vivo MRI established the value of MN-Cy5.5-MPAP for tumor localization and delineation. T2 map analysis demonstrated higher accumulation of MN-Cy5.5-MPAP in tumors than control MN-Cy5.5, as reflected by the change in tumoral T2 relaxation times following injection of the contrast agent.

Summer Gibbs-Strauss¹, Julia A. O'Hara, Scott C. Davis¹, Brian William Pogue¹

¹Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA

MR-guided optical fluorescence spectroscopy of glioma brain tumors was studied, contrasting the detectability of the 9L tumor with the U-251 tumor.  While the 9L tumor was delinated by T1 Gd-contrast MR, the U-251 was not as well resolved.  Intracellular and extracellular optical contrast agents however showed significantly better delineation of the U-251 tumor though, due to increased metabolic function.

Jeffrey I. Berman¹, Danny J. Clark¹, Mitchel S. Berger¹, Roland G. Henry¹

¹University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California , USA

In this study, a residual bootstrap probabilistic q-ball fiber tracking technique was used to delineate the motor tract in four brain tumor patients. Results of probabilistic and deterministic q-ball fiber tracking are compared to the currently used DTI fiber tracking technique.  Q-ball fiber tracking methods were able to delineate the motor tract to lateral portions of the motor cortex while DTI fiber tracking could not traverse regions of crossing white matter fibers. The HARDI acquisition used for this study was acquired in a clinically feasible timeframe and q-ball fiber tracking has the potential to be routinely used for surgical planning.

Poe-Jou Chen¹, ², Wei-Ting Zhang², Rakesh K. Jain³, T T. Batchelor³, A Gregory Sorensen²

¹Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA; ²Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Charlestown, Massachusetts, USA; ³Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, Massachusetts, USA

A random walk based tractography model is proposed to simulate the growth of glioblostams multiforma (GBMs). The simulated tumor evolution was compared with the real growth observed with two MR images of a patient acquired with one month difference. Results demonstrate the potential of this random walk model and the proposed model will be evaluated on more patient data to prove its feasibility in real clinical applications

Wei Bian¹, Inas S. Khayal, ¹², Colleen McGue¹, Suja Saraswathy¹, Soonmee Cha, Susan M. Chang¹, Sarah J. Nelson¹

¹University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California , USA; ²UCSF/UCB Joint Graduate Group in Bioengineering, San Francisco, California , USA

To differentiate low-grade glioma (LGG) subtypes, forty five newly diagnosed grade II glioma patients (17 oligodendroglioma, 11 astrocytoma, and 17 oligoastrocytoma) underwent proton MR spectroscopy imaging (MRSI), diffusion weighted imaging (DWI), and perfusion weighted imaging (PWI). Normalized metabolite intensities were estimated from MRSI, apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) from DWI, and relative cerebral blood volume (rCBV) from PWI. Discriminant analysis was performed to determine the parameters that better differentiate LGG subtypes. Median ADC and 25th percentile rCBV helped differentiate oligodendroglioma from astrocytoma, and median ADC and Choline helped differentiate oligodendroglioma from oligoastrocytoma. Better classification accuracy was achieved when using these mutiparametric MR data.

Keith Thulborn¹, Fred Damen, Aiming Lu¹, Ian Atkinson¹, John Villano¹, Howard Halpern, Bulent Aydogan², Michael Flannery¹, Hagai Ganin¹

¹Univ. of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA; ²Univ. of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Quantitative sodium imaging can be used to follow brain tumor response to radiation during initial treatment. A lack of response predicts treatment failure and its location. Such data allows modification of the initial treatment and the possibility to achieve an improved outcome for these patients.

Margarida Julià-Sapé¹, ², Indira E. Coronel², Carles Majós³, Ana Paula Candiota¹, ², Marta Serrallonga³, ⁴, Monica Cos³, Carles Aguilera³, Juan José Acebes⁵, John R. Griffiths⁶, Carles Arús, ¹²

¹CIBER-BBN, Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red en bioingenieria, Biomateriales y Nanomedicina, Cerdanyola del Valles, Spain; ²Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Valles, Spain; ³CSU de Bellvitge, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain; ⁴Telemedicine Clinic, Barcelona, Spain; ⁵Hospital Prínceps d’Espanya, CSU de Bellvitge, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain; ⁶Cancer Research UK Cambridge Research Institute, Li Ka Shing Centre, Cambridge, UK

Four methods for analysis of MR spectra were tested to determine which method worked best. Data from 40 consecutive adult patients with abnormal brain masses were prospectively analyzed. Formal criteria for MRS evaluation were used: a) Structured description of the MRS by expert spectroscopists; b) Analysis with the INTERPRET decision-support system; c) Calculation of a mIno/Gly ratio; d) Classifiers at short and at long TE. The best system was the INTERPRET DSS. It performed better than expert evaluation, as its embedded classifier incorporates quantitative measurements, whereas expert interpretation is by nature, qualitative.