POSSIBLE ROLE OF SINGLE-VOXEL 1H MRS IN DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS OF SUPRASELLAR TUMORS

Abstract

Spatially resolved metabolic data obtained from 1H Spectroscopy provides information
which increases the diagnostic accuracy of imaging sequences in predicting the
histology of suprasellar neoplasms. The aim of the study was to evaluate the role of
1HMRS in various suprasellar neoplasms and to determine their spectral
characteristics.60 cases were investigated with long-echo single voxel 1H -MRS using
1.5 Tesla clinical imager. Single-voxel spectroscopic examinations were guided by T1-
weighted or T2-weighted images. We observed that whenever brain tissue was
damaged or replaced by any process, NAA was markedly reduced. Extra-axial lesions,
which do not infiltrate brain or which do not contain neuroglial tissue, didn’t demonstrate
any NAA resonances. Cr was used as an internal standard for semi-quantitative
evaluation of metabolic changes of other brain metabolites. Increased Cho was seen in
processes with elevated cell-membrane turnover. Spectra obtained from different
tumors exhibit reproducible differences, while histologically similar tumors yield
characteristic spectra with only minor differences.