Higher Resolution Magnetic Resonance Elastography for the Evaluation of Intratumoral Heterogeneity in Meningiomas

Introduction: Magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) is an MRI-based modality that analyzes the movement of shear waves thorough tissue to determine stiffness, offering a way to "palpate" with imaging. A prior study on meningiomas showed prospective MRE measurements correlated well with surgeons' intraoperative observations regarding tumor consistency. However, this study reported the overall tumor consistency based on a lower resolution MRE technique and did not detect intratumoral differences. The purpose of our study was to evaluate a higher-resolution MRE technique to investigate whether intratumoral variations in softness or hardness could be detected with MRE.