Authors: Simona Gaudino Francesca Romana Quaglio Chiara Schiarelli Matia Martucci Tommaso Tartaglione Maria Rosaria Gualano Giuseppe Maria Di Lella Cesare Colosimo
Publish Date: 2012/01/28
Volume: 54, Issue: 9, Pages: 989-995
Abstract
Pilocytic astrocytoma PA is classified by the World Health Organization as a grade I tumor Magnetic resonance imaging MRI is the gold standard in the diagnosis and followup of this neoplasm and assessment of contrast enhancement CE pattern is essential The purpose of this study was to investigate CE changes of noncerebellar PA nC PA stable in size with serial MRINine hundred and twelve MRI exams of 140 children with histologically proven PA were retrospectively reviewed Patients were chosen for study inclusion if they were off therapy without neurofibromatosis type 1 and without dimensional changes of tumor/residual tumor In patients with CE changes tumor size and CE size were calculated with a cross product Descriptive statistics were calculated for continuous variables effects of possible factors influencing changes of contrastenhanced areas were testedOf 39 nC PA satisfying the inclusion criteria 12 showed CE changes in terms of appearance/increase or disappearance/decrease of CE areas Three of these 12 PA were infratentorial and nine supratentorial There were no significant correlations between age gender tumor localization tumor size and modification of CE areas
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