Differentiating Calcification and Hemorrhage in Brain Tumors: Susceptibility Weighted MR Imaging with Tissue Validation

Jatta Berberat¹, Rainer Grobholz¹, Larissa Boxheimer¹, Luca Remonda¹, Ulrich Roelcke¹

MR based susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) can sensitively detect blood products as well as for calcification. This study aims to assess the value of MR SWI for the detection and differentiation of calcification and hemorrhage in oligodendroglioma and glioblastoma multiforme tumours, based on a visual and on a pixel value analysis. Phase shift analysis is a promising method to demonstrate whether a lesion contains calcium or blood. An SWI MRI could reduce the patients radiation exposure by replacing computer tomography. The voxel analysis supplements the visual analysis in cases where there is uncertainty as to the cause underlying a susceptibility difference in the SWI image.