3D spin-lock imaging of human gliomas

We investigated whether the simultaneous use of paramagnetic contrast mediu m and 3D on-resonance spin lock (SL) imaging could improve the contrast of enhancing brain tumors at 0.1 T, A phantom containing serial concentrations of gadopentetate dimeglumine (Gd-DTPA) in cross-linked bovine serum albumi n (BSA) was imaged. Eleven patients with histologically verified glioma wer e also studied. T-1-weighted 3D gradient echo images with and without SL pu lse were acquired before and after a Gd-DTPA injection. SL effect, contrast , and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) were calculated for each patient, In th e glioma patients, the SL effect was significantly smaller in the tumor tha n in the white and gray matter both before (p = 0.001, p = 0.025, respectiv ely), and after contrast medium injection (p < 0.001,p < 0.001, respectivel y). On post-contrast images, SL imaging significantly improved tumor contra st (p = 0.001) whereas tumor CNR decreased slightly (p = 0.024). The combin ed use of SL imaging and paramagnetic Gd-DTPA contrast agent offers a modal ity for improving tumor contrast in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of enh ancing brain tumors. 3D gradient echo SL imaging has also shown potential t o increase tissue characterization properties of MR imaging of human glioma s, (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Inc.