Arterial spin labelling: predictive role in surgical bleeding of paediatric optic pathway gliomas.

Aim: To analyse the performance of arterial spin labelling (ASL) in predicting surgical bleeding in a paediatric cohort of optic pathway glioma (OPG).

Materials And Methods: Preoperative ASL data were obtained for 51 OPG in 40 patients, aged from 9 months to 16 years. The relative cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in the tumour areas with the highest CBF (maximum rCBF) was measured and then correlated with qualitative local bleeding (graded no, moderate, and major by the neurosurgeon) and quantitative global surgical bleeding (assessed in millilitres using haematocrit data).