Biomedicine

Abstract

Introduction and Aim: To assess Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) role in distinguishing neoplastic from non-neoplastic brain lesions. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively collected Magnetic resonance (MR) brain data from consecutive patients scanned between January and May 2021, identifying those with neoplastic and non-neoplastic brain lesions from Picture Archiving Communicating System (PACS). DTI sequences were performed on patients with intracranial lesions and a subset of control patients with normal MRI findings. The values of Fractional Anisotropy (FA) and Mean Diffusivity (MD) were obtained from both lesions and Normal Appearing White matter (NAWM) for comparison. Results: We analysed 64 samples (51.5 % male, 48 % female) with various Intracranial lesions. Mean FA values in lesions were 0.5925 and in NAWM were 0.6466, while mean MD values were 0.5816 mm²/sec in lesions and 0.6954 mm²/sec in NAWM. Statistical analysis showed a significant decrease in both FA and MD of Intracranial lesions compared to NAWM (p < 0.001). Conclusion: FA and MD values were lower in intracranial lesions compared to NAWM, except for metastases, which exhibited slight increases in both FA and MD values. These results highlight the utility of FA and MD values in distinguishing between types of intracranial lesion. Integrating MR DTI sequences into imaging protocols can improve diagnostic accuracy for individual cases of intracranial pathology.