Abstract #1572

Nagesh V, Lawrence T, Cao Y, Ross B, Tsien C, Junck L, Chenevert T

Understanding the structural and functional characteristics of the vascular microenvironment in gliomas is essential in design of therapeutic strategies. Alterations in the vascular properties in intratumor and peritumor may not be distinguishable by cerebral blood flow (CBF) or cerebral blood volume (CBV) alone. The objective was to examine the empirical and physiological relationships between CBF and CBV to estimate vasculature-specific hemodynamic characteristics in intratumor, peritumoral and normal brain tissue. Progressive abnormalities in functional and morphological characteristics of vascular bed were noted, with significant chaos and disorder in tumor, but mild abnormality in peritumoral tissue.