Apparent transverse relaxation (R2∗) on MRI as a method to differentiate treatment effect (pseudoprogression) versus progressive disease in chemoradiation for malignant glioma
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-1-2018
Journal
Journal of Medical Imaging and Radiation Oncology
Volume
62
Issue
2
First Page
224
Last Page
231
URL with Digital Object Identifier
10.1111/1754-9485.12694
Abstract
Introduction: Pseudoprogression (psPD) is a transient post-treatment imaging change that is commonly seen when treating glioma with chemotherapy and radiation. The use of apparent transverse relaxation rate (R *), which is calculated from a contrast-free multi-echo gradient echo Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) sequence, may allow for quantitative identification of patients with suspected psPD. Methods: We acquired a multi-echo gradient echo sequence using a 3T-Siemens Prisma MRI. The signal decay through the echoes was fitted to provide the (R *) coefficient. We segmented the T -gadolinium enhancing the image to provide a contrast enhancing lesion (CEL) and the FLAIR hyperintensity to provide a non-enhancing lesion (NEL). These regions of interest were applied to the multi-echo gradient echo to acquire a mean (R *) within the CEL and NEL. We additionally acquired ADC data to attempt to corroborate our findings. Results: We found that patients who later exhibited PD exhibited a higher (R *) within the CEL as well as a higher ratio of CEL to NEL. Our data correctly distinguished pseudoprogression from treatment effect in 9/9 patients, while ADC corrected identified 7/9 patients using an absolute ADC of 1200 × 10 mm /s. Conclusions: Our method seems promising for the accurate identification of psPD, and the technique is amenable to evaluation in larger, multi-centre patient cohorts. 2 2 1 2 2 −6 2