Rajendra N. Solanki1, Vidhi Shah2, Digish Vaghela3, Harshad Shah4
BACKGROUND
Our study have shown the role of MR spectroscopy in lesions whenever results are equivocal or non-conclusive even on MRI. MR spectroscopy can differentiate the lesions, particularly intracranial lesions on the basis of various metabolites.
The aims of this study is to diagnose the intracranial lesions and to show the advantage of MR spectroscopy over the conventional MRI, to differentiate the neoplastic from non-neoplastic lesion, to prove the reliability of MR spectroscopy in identifying the different grades of glioma with histopathological correlation as well as to differentiate recurrent tumour from post-operative changes or radiation necrosis.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
During the period of August 2009 to July 2011, a prospective study of 75 patients was carried out at Department of Radiodiagnosis, Civil Hospital and BJ Medical College, Ahmedabad, Gujarat. MRI was performed on 1.5 Tesla MR scanner (GE HDXT) using dedicated head coil. Conventional MR imaging was performed followed by MR spectroscopy using point resolved spectroscopy. After deciding the region of interest voxel was kept and 2D multivoxel proton spectroscopy (TR- 1000 msec, TE- 144 msec, voxel size 20 x 20 mm) or single voxel proton spectroscopy (TR- 1500 msec, TE- 35 msec, voxel size 20 x 20 mm) was performed and spectra obtained.
RESULTS
In the present study of 75 patients, the maximum number of patients were between 31 to 50 years of age. The approximate ratio of male: female was 2: 1. In our study sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value of MRI are 89%, 87%, 87% and 89% respectively and of MRI + MRS are 100%, 97%, 97% and 100% respectively in tumours.
CONCLUSION
MRS (Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy) is a non-invasive imaging technique that studies the chemical activity in the brain and detects the presence of certain chemical substances. Through this imaging technique, images and graphs of the brain can be obtained.
