Eleni Orphanidou-Vlachou1,2, Dorothee Auer3,4, Jonathan Coupland4, Nigel P. Davies2,5, Tim Jaspan4, Lesley McPherson2, Kal Natarajan2,5, Dawn Saunders6, Yu Sun1,2, Theodoros Arvanitis1,2, Richard Grundy3,4, Andrew Peet1,2
1University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK; 2Birmingham Children's Hospital, Birmingham, UK; 3University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK; 4Nottingham University Hospital, Nottingham, UK; 5University Hospital Birmingham, Birmingham, UK; 6Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, UK
This is a multicentre study of 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy for the characterisation of low grade brain tumours of childhood. These tumours are a diverse group and present diagnostic and prognostic challenges to clinicians. Single voxel MRS was performed as part of routine clinical imaging at 3 centres. The results show that MRS has the ability to discriminate between different diagnostic groups and tumours at different brain locations. In addition, it is starting to show evidence of being a valuable non-invasive tool for predicting prognosis. MRS can be performed at multiple centres and the data combined to provide robust results.