KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The study aimed to assess 5T GluCEST technique reproducibility in healthy volunteers and explore its clinical applications in patients with brain tumor.
- The results showed that 5T GluCEST images are highly reproducible in healthy brains and hold clinical promise.
Glutamate chemical exchange saturation transfer (GluCEST) is a non-invasive imaging technique used in brain cancer to detect tissue glutamate levels.
Jie Zhou and the team aimed to assess the reproducibility of the 5T GluCEST technique in healthy volunteers and explore its initial clinical application in patients with brain tumor.
The study involved 10 volunteers (4 males, mean age 29 years) who underwent three 5T GluCEST imaging scans to assess reproducibility. Statistical analyses included one-way repeated measures ANOVA, generalized estimating equations, and linear mixed models.
Additionally, 28 patients with brain tumors (10 males, mean age 54 years) received a single preoperative GluCEST scan. T-tests were used to compare GluCEST values across different tumor types, and diagnostic accuracy was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves.
The results revealed that GluCEST values in healthy volunteers showed coefficients of variation below 5% for intra-day, inter-day, and within-subjects, and below 10% for between-subjects variability. High-grade gliomas (HGG) exhibited significantly higher GluCEST values compared to low-grade gliomas (LGG) (P < 0.001).
Additionally, cerebellopontine angle (CPA) meningiomas had higher GluCEST values than acoustic neuromas (P< 0.001). The area under the curve (AUC) for differentiating CPA meningioma from acoustic neuroma based on GluCEST values was 0.93.
The study concluded that 5T GluCEST images demonstrate high reproducibility in healthy brains and show promise for clinically differentiating between LGG and HGG, also between CPA meningiomas and acoustic neuromas.
Funding was provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
Source: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11060-024-04759-3
Zhou, J., Sun, W., Li, H. et al. (2024). “Application of 5T glutamate chemical exchange saturation transfer imaging in brain tumors: preliminary results.” J Neurooncol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11060-024-04759-3
