Abstract #0031

Qualitative Detection of Ceramide and Other Metabolites in Brain Tumor by Localized Correlated Spectroscopy

Rajakumar Nagarajan¹, Whitney B. Pope¹, Noriko Salamon¹, Linda M. Liau², Timothy Cloughesy³, M Albert Thomas¹

¹Radiological Sciences, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States; ²Neurosurgery, University of California Los Angeles; ³Neurooncology, University of California Los Angeles

Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) provides metabolic information about brain tumors complementary to what can be obtained from anatomic images. In contrast to other metabolism-based imaging techniques, MRS yields multiparametric data, does not require ionizing radiation, and can be performed in conjunction with magnetic resonance imaging studies. Magnetic resonance spectral patterns have been shown to be distinct for different tumor types and grades. Two-dimensional (2D) localized correlated spectroscopy (L-COSY) in patients with high and low grade gliomas provides better dispersion of several metabolites such as N-acetylaspartate (NAA), creatine (Cr) choline (Cho), ceramide (Cer), phosphoethanolamine (PE), glutamine/glutamate (Glx), lactate (Lac), myo-inositol (mI), taurine (Tau), etc. which has been a major difficulty in 1D MRS.