Comparison of cerebral blood volume and plasma volume in untreated intracranial tumors

Purpose: Plasma volume and blood volume are imaging-derived parameters that are often used to evaluation intracranial tumors. Physiologically, these parameters are directly related, but their two different methods of measurements, T1-dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE)- and T2-dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC)-MR utilize different model assumptions and approaches. This poses the question of whether the interchangeable use of T1-DCE-MRI derived fractionated plasma volume (vp) and relative cerebral blood volume (rCBV) assessed using DSC-MRI, particularly in glioblastoma, is reliable, and if this relationship can be generalized to other types of brain tumors. Our goal was to examine the hypothetical correlation between these parameters in three most common intracranial tumor types. Methods: Twenty-four newly diagnosed, treatment naïve brain tumor patients, who had undergone DCE- and DSC-MRI, were classified in three histologically proven groups: glioblastoma (n=7), meningioma (n=9), and in...