Utilization of experimental animal model for correlative multispectral MRIand pathological analysis of brain tumors

Magnetic resonance imaging is the method of choice for non-invasive detecti on and evaluation of tumors of the central nervous system. However, discrim ination of tumor boundaries from normal tissue, and the evaluation of heter ogeneous lesions have proven to be limitations in traditional magnetic reso nance imaging, The use of post-image acquisition processing techniques, suc h as multispectral tissue segmentation analysis, may provide more accurate clinical information. In this report, we have employed an experimental anim al model for brain tumors induced by glial cells transformed by the human n eurotropic JC virus to examine the utility of multispectral tissue segmenta tion for tumor cell identification. Six individual tissue types were discri minated by segmentation analysis, including heterogeneous tumor tissue, a c lear demarcation of the boundary between tumor and non-tumor tissue, deep a nd cortical gray matter, and cerebrospinal fluid. Furthermore, the segmenta tion analysis was confirmed by histopathological evaluation. The use of mul tispectral tissue segmentation analysis may optimize the non-invasive deter mination and volumetric analysis of CNS neoplasms, thus providing improved clinical evaluation of tumor growth and: evaluation of the effectiveness of therapeutic treatments. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Inc.