Revisiting the use of proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy in distinguishing between primary and secondary malignant tumors of the central nervous system.

Background And Purpose: Conventional magnetic resonance images (MRI) has limitations in distinguishing primary from secondary brain tumors. Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (H-MRS) allows evaluation of the concentration of metabolites in a brain lesion and, hence, better characterization of the tumor. Considering that an accurate diagnosis determines the choice of treatment, our purpose was to assess the usefulness of spectroscopy data for differentiating between primary and secondary brain neoplasms.