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Abstract #2240

Pilocytic astrocytoma: NAA is not NAA

Benita Tamrazi 1 , Ashok Panigrahy 2 , and Stefan Bluml 1,3

1 Children's Hospital Los Angeles/USC, Los Angeles, CA, United States, 2 Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States, 3 Rudi Schulte Research Institute, Santa Barbara, CA, United States

MRS spectra of pediatric pilocytic astrocytoma generally show low creatine and prominent choline. Perplexingly, most spectra, including those acquired from large lesions with no partial volume of surrounding tissue, also show residual signal that appears to be consistent with N-acetyl-aspartate. In this study we analyze the precise chemical shift of the peak and demonstrate that the signal is indeed not consistent with NAA. We also show that the precise position of this peak improves the separation of regular grade II and grade III astrocytomas from pilocytic astrocytomas.

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