ABSTRACT
The imaging modality used to diagnose and monitor brain gliomas is magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), with standard protocols including contrast-enhanced T1-weighted and fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) image sequences. Many clinical trials are currently using contrast-enhanced T1-weighted MR image sequences to evaluate tumor response to treatment, but it is our hypothesis that FLAIR sequences will detect higher tumor volumes and, therefore, should be the preferred image sequence for this purpose. In this retrospective study, a volumetric analysis was conducted on the post-contrast T1-weighted and FLAIR MR image sequences of 38 patients with confirmed brain gliomas. The two volumes were subsequently found to have a statistically significant positive correlation. The FLAIR volume was also found to be greater than the post-contrast T1-weighted volume in all 38 patients. As a result, FLAIR image sequences provide a more complete characterization of gliomas and may be more beneficial when observing tumor response after treatment.