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Abstract #3406

Investigating spatial heterogeneity in diffuse gliomas with ultra-high gradient diffusion MRI and a model-free diffusion tensor distribution

Ina Ly1, Yiqiao Song1, Qiuyun Fan2, Aapo Nummenmaa1, Maria Martinez-Lage Alvarez1, William Curry1, Brian Nahed1, Daniel Cahill1, Pamela Jones1, Jorg Dietrich1, Deborah Forst1, Scott Plotkin1, Tracy Batchelor3, Bruce Rosen1, Susie Huang1, and Elizabeth Gerstner1
1Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States, 2Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Precision Instruments and Optoelectronics Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China, 3Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, United States

Synopsis

Diffuse gliomas demonstrate significant spatial heterogeneity which is not captured on standard anatomical MRI or with existing diffusion MRI (dMRI) methods. This is because current dMRI approaches provide voxel-averaged information about tissue composition and are based on a priori assumptions about underlying tissue microstructure, thus providing a simplified model of tissue properties. Here, we apply an unbiased, model-agnostic dMRI method (model-free diffusion tensor distribution (FDTD) and K-means clustering) to seven subjects with diffuse gliomas. We confirm the presence of intratumoral heterogeneity and find distinct differences in diffusion properties between gliomas of different histologic grades and pre- and post-treatment.

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