Yu-Yang Yeh1, Su-Chun Huang2, W-Y. Chiang1, F-C. Yeh1, J-C. Tsai3, H-M. Tseng3, Wen-Yih I. Tseng1,4
1Center for Optoelectronic Biomedicine, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan; 2Institute of Biomedical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan; 3Department of Surgery, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; 4Department of Medical Imaging, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
In patients with brain tumors, microstructural integrity of the corticospinal tracts (CST), as represented by generalized fractional anisotropy (GFA), and its correlations with the muscle power and tumor properties were investigated. The results showed that GFA was significantly decreased on the tumor side as compared to the healthy side. The GFA values on the tumor side were not significantly correlated with the muscle power of the contralateral limbs. Further analysis revealed that GFA was increased as tumor volume increased, whereas it was decreased as the tumor edge distance to CST decreased. Our results suggest that GFA is changed counteractively by different tumor properties, and this may cause in part the weak relation to the muscle power impairment.