Quantitative Approach of Diffusion-Weighted Imaging Apparent Diffusion Coefficient concerning Characterization of Benign Cranial Meningiomas

The objective of this paper is to report a quantitative assessment of the data obtained in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) from diffusion-weighted imaging(DWI) sequence in order to establish the specific values of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) for meningiomas. Furthermore, the study aims to identify the benign ADC spectrum of this brain tumor and to analyse the further benefits of DWI quantification usage in the follow-up protocol. The methods used to achieve those purposes included scanning a number of 44 meningiomas, post-processing of DWI and calculation of ADC values. Our results suggest that typical meningiomas' ADC numbers range between 0.636-1.034 x 10(-3) mm/s(2) (mean 0.838 x 10(-3)mm/s(2)). Also, as an incidental finding, this research concludes that age and gender prove to be important factors because only in patients over 40 years old this pathology was detected and female subjects were more prone to develop meningiomas.