Comparison of Diagnostic Accuracy of Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy with Conventional Magnetic Resonance Imaging for Brain Tumors and Correlation with Histopathology as Gold Standard

Background: In spite of recent advances in the use of diagnostic imaging modalities none of them has a hundred percent accuracy. So, misdiagnosis still occurs. Many trials are being done to evaluate the accuracy of these tools individually or in combination. The most useful investigation is MRI which broadly gives information of lesion as well its relationship with surrounding structures. While magnetic resonance spectroscopy further characterizes the lesion into benign or malignant. So this study is bit superior giving more details. By enlarge histopathology is gold standard for ultimate diagnosis. However these radiological investigations are extremely important for preoperative planning as well management of the lesion. In this study we compare the diagnostic accuracy of Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) with conventional MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) sequences for diagnosis of brain tumors keeping histopathology as gold standard. Methods: The study was performed in 150 clinically suspected cases which were referred to Radiology Department from OPD, Indoor, Emergency and private sources from outside the hospital. Results: Majority 85(56.7%) were adult males and 65(43.3%) were adult females. The study was divided into two major age groups. There were 33cases (22%) with average age 20-35 years. The other age group 36-50 years had 40(26.7%) Majority of the cases 77(51.3%) were of average >50 years of age. The higher age groups showed a female dominance. Histopathology of 100(66.7%) cases confirmed positive and 50(33.3%) negative for MR Spectroscopy. On comparison of conventional MRI with contrast, and Histopathology it was observed that the sensitivity of MRI was 74.0% and the specificity 82.0%.The positive and negative predictive values gave a lower accuracy rate of 76.6%. Conclusion: The conclusion of our study is that MRS is a rigorous, non-invasive, safe and convenient imaging modality for the evaluation of brain tumors as compared to MRI.