Perioperative Changes in Diffusion Tensor Imaging of White Matter in Patients with Brain Tumors

Kyung K. Peck¹, Tania Sierra², Zhigang Zhigang¹, Raymond Baser¹, Rob Young¹

DTI is proving to be useful in a range of applications, such as planning brain tumor surgery, glioma grading and image-modulated radiation therapy. The peritumoral region is an important area that may harbor infiltrating tumor cells in gliomas. The peritumoral region is also susceptible to mechanical and ischemic injury during surgery. DTI demonstrates changes in the peritumoral region immediately after surgery. The exact etiology of these changes remains uncertain. These changes occur in both glioma and nonglioma patients, although only the peritumoral region of gliomas reflects both edema and infiltrating tumor cells.