Diagnostic Value of Brain Functional Imaging in the Assessment of Intraaxial Tumors

¹Medicina y Ciruga Experimental, Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Maran, Madrid, Spain; ²Radiodiagnostico, Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Maran, Madrid, Spain; ³Centro de investigacin en red en salud mental (CIBERSAM), Madrid, Spain

This study compares two approaches for automatic classification of brain tumors according to their grade: one using image-based variables (necrosis, gadolinium uptake, neovascularization, haemorrhage, calcifications and edema) and another one including quantitative data from functional studies (perfusion, difusion and spectroscopy). 134 patients with intraaxial brain tumors of known grade were recruited over 4 years in a Radiology Department. Two different classifiers were made, one for each set of variables. No significant differences were found between the classification accuracy. We conclude that the data provided by functional studies does not necessarily increase diagnostic accuracy in a real routine clinical setting.