Antonio Napolitano1, Fotios Savvopoulos1,
Timothy Jaspan2, Richard G. Grundy2, Dorothee P Auer1
1Academic Radiology,
University of Nottingham, Nottingham, Nottighamshire, United Kingdom; 2The
Children's Brain Tumour Research Centre, University of Nottingham,
Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom
Proton MRS is increasingly used for tumour characterisation as it provides a non-invasive biochemical profile of the tumour tissue with typical patterns for high and low grade tumours and information for the differential diagnosis and prognosis. The high lipid content in Pilocytic Astrocytoma (PA) could be confusing as it is considered as a marker of necrosis and typically seen in highly aggressive tumours. Since necrosis is not a feature of PA at the histopathological level, hence we hypothesise that the lipid pattern in patients with PA is different from that present in high grade tumours suggesting different underlying biochemical composition.