Abstract
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Prognosis in glioma depends strongly on tumor grade and proliferation. In this prospective study of patients with untreated primary cerebral gliomas, we investigated whether amide proton transfer–weighted imaging could reveal tumor proliferation and reliably distinguish low-grade from high-grade gliomas compared with Ki-67 expression and proton MR spectroscopy imaging.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
This study included 42 patients with low-grade (n = 28) or high-grade (n = 14) glioma, all of whom underwent conventional MR imaging, proton MR spectroscopy imaging, and amide proton transfer–weighted imaging on the same 3T scanner within 2 weeks before surgery. We assessed metabolites of choline and N-acetylaspartate from proton MR spectroscopy imaging and the asymmetric magnetization transfer ratio at 3.5 ppm from amide proton transfer–weighted imaging and compared them with histopathologic grade and immunohistochemical expression of the proliferation marker Ki-67 in the resected specimens.
RESULTS
The asymmetric magnetization transfer ratio at 3.5 ppm values measured by different readers showed good concordance and were significantly higher in high-grade gliomas than in low-grade gliomas (3.61% ± 0.155 versus 2.64% ± 0.185, P = .0016), with sensitivity and specificity values of 92.9% and 71.4%, respectively, at a cutoff value of 2.93%. The asymmetric magnetization transfer ratio at 3.5 ppm values correlated with tumor grade (r = 0.506, P = .0006) and Ki-67 labeling index (r = 0.502, P = .002). For all patients, the asymmetric magnetization transfer ratio at 3.5 ppm correlated positively with choline (r = 0.43, P = .009) and choline/N-acetylaspartate ratio (r= 0.42, P = .01) and negatively with N-acetylaspartate (r = −0.455, P = .005). These correlations held for patients with low-grade gliomas versus those with high-grade gliomas, but the correlation coefficients were higher in high-grade gliomas (choline: r = 0.547, P = .053; N-acetylaspartate: r = −0.644, P = .017; choline/N-acetylaspartate: r = 0.583, P = .036).
CONCLUSIONS
The asymmetric magnetization transfer ratio at 3.5 ppm may serve as a potential biomarker not only for assessing proliferation, but also for predicting histopathologic grades in gliomas.
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Editor’s Choice
Amide proton transfer–weighted imaging (APTWI) is a novel molecular MR imaging technique developed to detect and quantitatively visualize endogenous proteins and peptides. APTWI is usually reported in terms of asymmetry in the magnetization transfer ratio at 3.5 ppm. This study included 42 patients with low-grade (n = 28) or high-grade (n = 14) glioma, all of whom underwent conventional MR imaging, proton MR spectroscopy imaging, and amide proton transfer–weighted imaging on the same 3T scanner within 2 weeks before surgery. The asymmetric magnetization transfer ratio at 3.5 ppm values measured by different readers showed good concordance and were significantly higher in high-grade gliomas than in low-grade gliomas, with sensitivity and specificity values of 92.9% and 71.4%, respectively, at a cutoff value of 2.93%. The asymmetric magnetization transfer ratio at 3.5 ppm may serve as a potential biomarker not only for assessing proliferation, but also for predicting histopathologic grades in gliomas.