Differentiation between high and low grade tumours in paediatric patients by using apparent diffusion coefficients.

Objective: This study was performed to confirm the hypothesis that pre-operative apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) can be used to distinguish between "low grade" and "high grade" tumours in paediatric patients.

Material And Methods: ADC values were retrospectively evaluated in thirty-six paediatric brain tumours. Twenty-one children with low grade brain tumours (12 WHO I astrocytomas, 1 giant cell tumour, 1 pilomyxoid astrocytoma, 4 WHO II astrocytomas, 2 craniopharyngiomas and 1 ganglioglioma) and 15 children with high grade brain tumours (6 medulloblastomas, 3 WHO III ependymomas, 1 PNET, 1 malignant rhabdoid tumour, 1 malignant germ cell tumour, 1 WHO III astrocytoma, 1 WHO IV astrocytoma, 1 rhabdomyosarcoma metastasis) were included in this study.

MR spectroscopy differentiation between high and low grade astrocytomas: a comparison between paediatric and adult tumours.

Objective: To investigate whether pathologically similar astrocytomas in adults and children may also show metabolic similarities in proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy ((1)H-MRS) and whether the MRS data could help to differentiate between low and high grade gliomas for the different groups.

Material And Methods: Twelve children (5 WHO II astrocytomas, 7 WHO III astrocytomas) and 37 adults (21 WHO II astrocytomas, 16 WHO III astrocytomas) were included in this study. MR spectroscopic data were evaluated retrospectively using normalized measures of total choline (tCho), N-acetyl-aspartate (NAA) and total creatine (tCr).