Correlation of ADC values of adult brain tumors with the diagnosis and pathological grade: A cross‐sectional multicenter study

AbstractBackground and AimBrain tumors are common, requiring physicians to have a precise understanding of them for accurate diagnosis and treatment. Considering that various histological tumor types present different cellularity, we conducted this research to examine the role of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values in the differential diagnosis and pathologic grading of brain tumor types.MethodsIn this cross‐sectional study, we gathered pathology reports of histological samples of adult brain tumors. The tissue sample of brain tumors were examined histologically by a pathologist. The magnetic resonance imaging data of these patients were interpreted by a neuroradiologist. The measured ADC values and ADC ratios were calculated. Standard mean ADC values were expressed as 10−6 mm2/s. The findings were compared according to the histological diagnosis of each tumor.ResultsSixty‐eight patients were included in the study: 34 (50%) were male, and 34 (50%) were female. The average age of the patients was 51.69 + 16.40 years. In the examination of tumor type, 16 (23.5%) were astrocytoma, 9 (13.2%) were oligodendroglioma, 20 (29.4%) were glioblastoma, 4 (5.9%) were medulloblastoma, and 19 (27.9%) were metastatic tumors. the average value of ADC was statistically significantly different according to the pathological type of tumor (p < 0.001). The two‐by‐two comparison of average ADC among tumor types revealed significant differences, except for oligodendroglioma and glioblastoma (p‐value = 0.87) and glioblastoma and medulloblastoma (p‐value = 0.347). The average value of ADC and ADC ratio was statistically significantly different according to the pathological grade of the tumor (p < 0.001). In the two‐by‐two comparison of average ADC between all pathological grades of the tumor showed a significance difference except for Grade I and Grade II (p‐value = 0.355). The mean value of ADC and ADC ratio for glioblastoma and metastatic tumors showed no significant difference.ConclusionThe assessment of brain tumor grade through ADC examination will help to estimate prognosis and devising suitable therapeutic strategies.