NONINVASIVE PERFUSION IMAGING OF HUMAN BRAIN-TUMORS WITH EPISTAR

A total of 17 patients with histologically proven diagnoses of low-gra de astrocytoma (n = 4), high-grade astrocytoma (n = 8), lymphoma (n = 3), and meningioma (n = 2) were examined by using EPISTAR MR imaging. Meningiomas had the highest EPISTAR tumor/white matter contrast and lo w-grade astrocytomas and lymphomas the lowest. High-grade astrocytomas demonstrated elevated EPISTAR signal with marked regional heterogenei ty. There was agreement between tumor vascularity by SPECT and EPISTAR in the five cases where both were done. Our results show that tumor v ascularity can be assesed qualitatively by using EPISTAR without the n eed for contrast medium injection.