High-field quantitative transverse relaxation time, magnetization transfer and apparent water diffusion in experimental rat brain tumour

The potential of quantitative parameter images of transverse relaxation time T2, apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) to characterize experimental brain tumours was studied. Necrosis or haemorrhage can be detected using either MTR, ADC or T2 (necrosis—MTR reduced by 35%, ADC and T2 increased respectively by 170% and 100% compared with normal brain tissue; haemorrhage—MTR increased by 60%, ADC and T2 decreased by 40% and 20%, respectively). Normal brain tissue can only be distinguished from tumour on T2 and MTR parameter images. However, for small tumours (10 µl), the best contrast is observed with MTR, ca. 30%, whereas for T2 the contrast is ca. 10%. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.