Sofie Van Cauter1, Jelle Veraart2,
Jan Sijbers2, Uwe Himmelreich3, Ronald Peeters1,
Stefaan Van Gool4, Wim Van Hecke1,2, Stefan Sunaert1
1Department of Radiology,
University Hospitals of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; 2Vision Lab,
Department of Physics, University of Antwerp; 3Biomedical NMR
Unit/Molecular Small Animal Imaging Center, Department of Medical Diagnostic
Sciences, Catholic University Leuven; 4Pediatric Neuro-Oncology,
University Hospitals of Leuven
Current routinely used MR techniques are often insufficient in accurate grading of glioma. Hence, in most cases a biopsy is warranted in order to obtain a definitive diagnosis. In this study, we evaluate the potential role of diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) in the grading of gliomas. 16 patients with cerebral glioma prior to any treatment underwent DKI imaging on a 3T MR scanner. Significant difference in mean kurtosis (MK) between high and low grade glioma was demonstrated, thereby showing a better separation in comparison to parameters from conventional diffusion imaging. MK is a potential new biomarker in grading of glioma.