Sanjeev Chawla1,
Sumei Wang1, Sungheon Kim2, Sulaiman Sheriff3,
Ramesh Rengan4, Alexander Lin4, Elias R. Melhem1,
Andrew Maudsley3, Harish Poptani1
1Radiology,
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States; 2Radiology,
New York University, New York, NY, United States; 3Radiology,
University of Miami, Miami, FL, United States; 4Radiation
Oncology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States
To assess the extent of damage to normal brain in patients irradiated with whole brain radiation therapy, patients with brain metastases (n=4) and small-lung cancers undergoing prophylactic cranial irradiation (n=3) underwent whole brain echoplanar spectroscopic imaging (EPSI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Significantly increase in mean diffusivity (MD), Cho/Cr and trend towards decrease in NAA/Cr were observed from right hippocampus post-irradiation. Significant decrease in FA from right centrum-semiovale and significant increase in MD and Cho/Cr from genu of corpus-callosum were also observed post-irradiation. These promising findings suggest the potential of EPSI and DTI in assessing radiation toxicity in normal brain.