Fiber-tract localized diffusion coefficients highlight patterns of white matter disruption induced by proximity to glioma

Gliomas account for 26.5% of all primary central nervous system tumors. Recent studies have used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to extract white matter fibers and the diffusion coefficients derived from MR processing to provide useful, non-invasive insights into the extent of tumor invasion, axonal integrity, and gross differentiation of glioma from metastasis. Here, we extend this work by examining whether a tract-based analysis can improve non-invasive localization of tumor impact on white matter integrity. This study retrospectively analyzed preoperative magnetic resonance sequences highlighting contrast enhancement and DTI scans of 13 subjects that were biopsy confirmed to have either high or low-grade glioma. We reconstructed the corticospinal tract and superior longitudinal fasciculus by applying atlas-based regions of interest to fibers derived from whole-brain deterministic streamline tractography. Within-subject comparison of hemispheric diffusion coefficients (e.g., fractional...神经胶质瘤（Gliomas）占所有原发性中枢神经系统肿瘤的26.5%。既往研究已借助弥散张量成像（diffusion tensor imaging, DTI）提取脑白质纤维，并结合磁共振图像处理得到的弥散系数，为肿瘤侵袭范围、轴突完整性以及胶质瘤与转移瘤的大体鉴别诊断提供了极具价值的非侵入性研究依据。本研究在此基础上，探讨基于纤维束的分析能否提升肿瘤对脑白质完整性造成影响的非侵入性定位精度。本研究回顾性分析了13例经活检证实为高级别或低级别胶质瘤的受试者的术前磁共振增强成像序列及DTI扫描数据。通过将基于图谱的感兴趣区应用于全脑确定性流线型纤维束追踪得到的纤维，本研究重建了皮质脊髓束（corticospinal tract）与上纵束（superior longitudinal fasciculus），并开展了受试者双侧半球间弥散系数（如分数……）的对比分析。