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Magnetic resonance spectroscopy in posterior fossa tumours: the tumour spectroscopic signature may improve discrimination in adults among haemangioblastoma, ependymal tumours, medulloblastoma, and metastasis

  • Magnetic Resonance
  • Published:
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Abstract

Objectives

Assessing a posterior fossa tumour in an adult can be challenging. Metastasis, haemangioblastoma, ependymal tumours, and medulloblastoma are the most common diagnostic possibilities. Our aim was to evaluate the contribution of magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) in the diagnosis of these entities.

Methods

We retrospectively evaluated 56 consecutive patients with a posterior fossa tumour and histological diagnosis of ependymal tumour, medulloblastoma, haemangioblastoma, and metastasis in which good-quality spectra at short (TE 30 ms) or/and intermediate (TE, 136 ms) TE were available. Spectra were compared using the Mann-Whitney U non-parametric test in order to select the spectral datapoints and the intensity ratios that showed significant differences between groups of lesions. Performance of these datapoints and their ratios were assessed with ROC curves.

Results

The most characteristic signatures on spectroscopy were high choline (Cho) in medulloblastoma (p < 0.001), high myoinositol (mIns) in ependymal tumours (p < 0.05), and high lipids (LIP) in haemangioblastoma (p < 0.01) and metastasis (p < 0.01). Selected ratios between normalised intensity signals of resonances provided accuracy values between 79 and 95% for pairwise comparisons. Intensity ratio NI3.21ppm/3.55ppm provided satisfactory discrimination between medulloblastoma and ependymal tumours (accuracy, 92%), ratio NI2.11ppm/1.10ppm discriminated ependymal tumours from haemangioblastoma (accuracy, 94%), ratio NI3.21ppm/1.13ppm discriminated haemangioblastoma from medulloblastoma (accuracy, 95%), and ratio NI1.28ppm/2.02pmm discriminated haemangioblastoma from metastasis (accuracy, 83%).

Conclusions

MRS may improve the non-invasive diagnosis of posterior fossa tumours in adults.

Key Points

• High choline suggests a medulloblastoma in a posterior fossa tumour.

• High myoinositol suggests an ependymal lesion in a posterior fossa tumour.

• High lipids suggest a metastasis or a haemangioblastoma in a posterior fossa tumour.

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Abbreviations

Cho:

Choline

Glx:

Glutamine-glutamate

LIP:

Lipids

MRS:

Magnetic resonance spectroscopy

mIns:

Myoinositol

NI:

Normalised to unit length datapoint intensities

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Funding

This work was partially funded by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) grant MOLIMAGLIO (SAF2014-52332-R). It was also funded by Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red – Bioingeniería, Biomateriales y Nanomedicina (CIBER-BBN, [http://www.ciber-bbn.es/en]), an initiative of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Spain) co-funded by EU Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain

    Paloma Mora & Amadeo Muntané

  2. Department of Radiology, Institut de Diagnòstic per la Imatge (IDI), Centre Bellvitge, Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain

    Albert Pons, Mónica Cos, Angels Camins, Carles Aguilera & Carles Majós

  3. Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red en Bioingeniería, Biomateriales y Nanomedicina (CIBER-BBN), Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain

    Carles Aguilera, Carles Arús & Carles Majós

  4. Departament de Bioquímica i Biologia Molecular, Unitat de Bioquímica de Biociències, Edifici Cs, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain

    Carles Arús

  5. Institut de Biotecnologia i de Biomedicina (IBB), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain

    Carles Arús

Authors
  1. Paloma Mora
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  2. Albert Pons
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  3. Mónica Cos
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  4. Angels Camins
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  5. Amadeo Muntané
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  6. Carles Aguilera
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  7. Carles Arús
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  8. Carles Majós
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Paloma Mora.

Ethics declarations

Guarantor

The scientific guarantor of this publication is Carlos Majós MD, PhD.

Conflict of interest

The authors of this manuscript declare no relationships with any companies, whose products or services may be related to the subject matter of the article.

Statistics and biometry

One of the authors has significant statistical expertise.

Informed consent

Written informed consent was obtained from all subjects (patients) in this study.

Ethical approval

Institutional Review Board approval was obtained.

Study subjects or cohorts overlap

Some study subjects or cohorts have been previously reported in:

a. Majós C, Alonso J, Aguilera C, et al (2003) Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H MRS) of human brain tumours: assessment of differences between tumour types and its applicability in brain tumour categorization. Eur Radio 13:582–91.

b. Mora P, Majós C, Castañer S, et al (2014) 1H-MRS is useful to reinforce the suspicion of primary central nervous system lymphoma prior to surgery. Eur Radiol 24:2895–905.

c. Majós C, Alonso J, Aguilera C, Serrallonga M, Acebes JJ, Arús C, Gili J. Adult primitive neuroectodermal tumour: Proton MR Spectroscopic findings with possible application for differential diagnosis. Radiology 2002;225:556–566.

d. Majós C, Julià-Sapé M, Alonso J, Serrallonga M, Aguilera C, Acebes JJ, Arús C, Gili J. Brain tumor classification by proton MR spectroscopy: comparison of diagnostic accuracy at short and long TE. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol 2004;25:1696–1704.

e. Majós C, Aguilera C, Cos M, Camins A, Candiota AP, Delgado-Goñi T, Samitier A, Castañer S, Sánchez JJ, Mato D, Acebes JJ, Arús C. In vivo proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy of intraventricular tumours of the Brain. Eur Radiol 2009;19:2049–2059.

Methodology

• retrospective

• diagnostic or prognostic study/observational

• performed at one institution

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Mora, P., Pons, A., Cos, M. et al. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy in posterior fossa tumours: the tumour spectroscopic signature may improve discrimination in adults among haemangioblastoma, ependymal tumours, medulloblastoma, and metastasis. Eur Radiol 29, 2792–2801 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-018-5879-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-018-5879-z

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