High-field quantitative transverse relaxation time, magnetization transferand apparent water diffusion in experimental rat brain tumour

The potential of quantitative parameter images of transverse relaxation tim e T-2, apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and magnetization transfer rati o (MTR) to characterize experimental brain tumours was studied. Necrosis or haemorrhage can be detected using either MTR, ADC or T-2 (necrosis-MTR red uced by 35%, ADC and T-2 increased respectively by 170% and 100% compared w ith normal brain tissue; haemorrhage-MTR increased by 60%, ADC and T-2 decr eased by 40% and 20%, respectively). Normal brain tissue can only be distin guished from tumour on T-2 and MTR parameter images. However, for small tum ours (10 mu l), the best contrast is observed with MTR, ca. 30%, whereas fo r T-2 the contrast is ca. 10%. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.