Armin Michael Nagel1, Michael Bock1,
Christian Matthies1, Marc-Andr Weber2, Stephanie Combs3,
Wolfhard Semmler1, Armin Biller, 2
1Medical Physics in Radiology, German
Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany; 2Department of
Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital Heidelberg,
Germany; 3Department of Radiation Oncology, University Hospital
Heidelberg, Germany
In
this work brain-tumor patients were investigated with different 23Na-image
contrasts (spin-density, 23Na-FLAIR) to gain information from which compartment
the 23Na-signal originates. Using a 23Na-FLAIR sequence
different 23Na-compartments in many brain tumors can be
suppressed, whereas other parts still exhibit a high 23Na-FLAIR-signal.
Our findings indicate that a combination of both 23Na-sequences
allows for separating different 23Na compartments. Distinguishing
these compartments might be important for the determination of potential
tumor malignancy.