Abstract:
Objective: To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy (MRS) in distinguishing neoplastic
from non-neoplastic ring enhancing brain lesions taking histopathological findings as gold standard.
Study Design and Setting: The cross sectional study was conducted at Radiology department of Jinnah Postgraduate
Medical Centre.
Methodology: Total 102 patients with ring enhancing lesions detected on MRI brain contrast studies were selected for this
study. Cases were referred from Outpatient Department of Neurology Clinics who were suspected of having space occupying
lesions in brain. Full history, clinical examination and laboratory investigations (Complete Blood Count and ESR) were
carried out. The patients having claustrophobia, metallic implants, cardiac pacemaker and having metallic foreign body
in situ were excluded from the study. Informed consent was taken from the research and MRS was performed. On MRS,
lesion was categorized and final diagnosis was taken based on histopathology results. All the information was recorded
into predesigned proforma. Patients Data was scrutinized by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 21.0).
Mean + SD was calculated for age, gender, duration of symptoms and size of the lesion.
Results: The average age of the patients was 35.45±10.36 years. Sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV and accuracy of MRS
was 87.5%, 93.3%, 95.5%, 89.7% and 92.1% respectively.
Conclusion: Magnetic resonance spectroscopy can be effective in discerning neoplastic from non-neoplastic ring enhancing
cerebral lesions, thus avoiding an invasive procedure like brain biopsy.