Introduction: It is a common view that consistency and blood supply of pituitary adenoma (PA) can influence the surgical effect. The aim of this study was to determine whether MRI signal intensity (SI) was correlated to the consistency or blood supply of pituitary macroadenoma.
Methods: Forty eight pituitary macroadenoma patients were underwent preoperative MRI, including precontrast and contrast-enhanced (CE) T1-spin echo (T1-SE) imaging, CE-sampling perfection with application-optimized contrasts by using different flip angle evolutions (SPACE) imaging, and perfusion-weighted imaging (PWI). The tumor consistency and blood supply were determined by neurosurgeons. The expression of collagen IV and MIB-1 was detected with immunohistology. The correlation of the relative SI (rSI) values (tumor to normal frontal white matter SI) and PWI data to the tumor consistency, blood supply, and the expression level of collagen IV and MIB-1 was statistically studied by Kruskal-Wallis rank test (K-W test).
Results: A significant correlation was observed between the tumor consistency and the rSI on precontrast T1-SE imaging (P = 0.004) but not on CE T1-SE and CE SPACE imaging. The expression of collagen IV was also significantly associated with rSI on T1-SE imaging (P = 0.010). The blood supply was correlated with the relative CBV (rCBV) (P = 0.030). In addition, the expression of MIB-1 was correlated with rSI of CE T1-SE imaging (P = 0.007).
Conclusion: Our results suggest that T1-SE imaging may be a simple and useful method for predicting consistency of PA. CBV value can provide helpful information for assessing the blood supply of pituitary macroadenoma.
Keywords: Blood supply; Consistency; Magnetic resonance imaging; Perfusion-weighted imaging; Pituitary adenoma.