VALUE OF FRACTIONAL ANISOTROPY IN THE DIFFUSION TENSOR IMAGING ON GLIOMA GRADING

Background: Our purpose was to determine the value of FA in preoperative predicting the histological grade of glioma. Materials and methods: Descriptive study with 32 patients in Da Nang Hospital, from 01/2012 to 6/2013, with histological verified gliomas. DTI was performed to study the relationship between FA value and grade of gliomas. Results: Median FA of tumor border and median FA of ratio tumor border/normal white matter of the contralateral hemisphere were 0.234 + 0.200 and 0.721 + 0.608 for grade 2 versus 0.147 + 0.053 and 0.387 + 0.138 for grade 3 (p=0.038 and 0.006). Conclusion: FA of tumor border is valuable for preoperative predicting the histological grade 2 and 3 of glioma. Key words: Fractional anisotropy (FA), Glioma, Histological grade, MR diffusion tensor imaging (magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging).