Object: This study investigated the specific preoperative MRI features of patients with intracranial meningiomas that correlate with pathological grade and provide appropriate preoperative planning.
Methods: From 2006 to 2012, 120 patients (36 men and 84 women, age range 20-89 years) with newly diagnosed symptomatic intracranial meningiomas undergoing resection were retrospectively analyzed in terms of radiological features of preoperative MRI. There were 90 WHO Grade I and 30 WHO Grade II or III meningiomas. The relationships between MRI features and WHO histopathological grade were analyzed and scored quantitatively.
Results: According to the results of multivariate logistic regression analysis, age ≥ 75 years, indistinct tumorbrain interface, positive capsular enhancement, and heterogeneous tumor enhancement were identified factors in the prediction of advanced histopathological grade. The prediction model was quantified as a scoring scale: 2 × (age) + 5 × (tumor-brain interface) + 3 × (capsular enhancement) + 2 × (tumor enhancement). The calculated score correlated positively with the probability of high-grade meningioma.
Conclusions: This scoring approach may be useful for clinicians in determining therapeutic strategy and in surgical planning for patients with intracranial meningiomas.
Keywords: ADC = apparent diffusion coefficient; DWI = diffusion-weighted imaging; FLAIR = fluidattenuated inversion recovery; OR = odds ratio; WHO grade; histopathological; magnetic resonance imaging; meningioma; oncology; radiological prediction.