Abstract #0968

Assessing Radiation Toxicity to the Normal Brain by Echo-Planar Spectroscopic Imaging and Diffusion Tensor Imaging

Sanjeev Chawla¹, Sumei Wang¹, Sungheon Kim², Sulaiman Sheriff³, Ramesh Rengan⁴, Alexander Lin⁴, Elias R. Melhem¹, Andrew Maudsley³, Harish Poptani¹

¹Radiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States; ²Radiology, New York University, New York, NY, United States; ³Radiology, University of Miami, Miami, FL, United States; ⁴Radiation Oncology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States

To assess the extent of damage to normal brain in patients irradiated with whole brain radiation therapy, patients with brain metastases (n=4) and small-lung cancers undergoing prophylactic cranial irradiation (n=3) underwent whole brain echoplanar spectroscopic imaging (EPSI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Significantly increase in mean diffusivity (MD), Cho/Cr and trend towards decrease in NAA/Cr were observed from right hippocampus post-irradiation. Significant decrease in FA from right centrum-semiovale and significant increase in MD and Cho/Cr from genu of corpus-callosum were also observed post-irradiation. These promising findings suggest the potential of EPSI and DTI in assessing radiation toxicity in normal brain.