PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Bruening, Roland
AU  - Berchtenbreiter, Christian
AU  - Holzknecht, Nicolaus
AU  - Essig, Marco
AU  - Wu, Ren Hua
AU  - Simmons, Andrew
AU  - Heuck, Andreas
AU  - Maschek, Anne
AU  - Meusel, Monika
AU  - Williams, Steve C. R.
AU  - Cox, Tim
AU  - Knopp, Michael V
AU  - Reiser, Maximilian
TI  - Effects of Three Different Doses of a Bolus Injection of Gadodiamide: Assessment of Regional Cerebral Blood Volume Maps in a Blinded Reader Study
DP  - 2000 Oct 01
TA  - American Journal of Neuroradiology
PG  - 1603--1610
VI  - 21
IP  - 9
4099  - http://www.ajnr.org/content/21/9/1603.short
4100  - http://www.ajnr.org/content/21/9/1603.full
SO  - Am. J. Neuroradiol.2000 Oct 01; 21
AB  - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Reconstruction of first-pass bolus information to derive regional cerebral blood volume (rCBV) maps is commonly performed in many centers; however, various protocols with different doses of paramagnetic contrast injections have been reported. We evaluated the dose dependency of rCBV maps in a brain tumor population by using three different doses of gadodiamide injection to evaluate their diagnostic accuracy in blinded reader sessions.METHODS: Eighty-three patients with intraaxial brain tumors (72 gliomas) were studied at three centers and randomized to receive a bolus injection of 0.1, 0.2, or 0.3 mmol/kg per body weight of gadodiamide. rCBV maps were generated from T2*-weighted gradient-echo echo-planar sequences at 1.5 T. Data processing was performed according to the indicator dilution theory.RESULTS: The mean contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) was significantly different between gadodiamide doses of 0.1 and 0.2 mmol/kg (CNR = 8.7 and 15.7) and between 0.1 and 0.3 mmol/kg (CNR = 17.7). No significant difference was found between doses of 0.2 and 0.3 mmol/kg. Sensitivity for the differentiation of benign and malignant brain tumors was 80%, 95%, and 91%, and specificity was 45%, 54%, and 43% by blinded readings at 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3 mmol/kg, respectively, as compared with histologic findings. Nonblinded readings had a sensitivity of 83%, 100%, and 90% and a specificity of 82%, 100%, and 73% at 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3 mmol/kg, respectively.CONCLUSION: A dose of 0.2 mmol/kg of gadodiamide is recommended for reconstruction of rCBV maps if data are acquired with the T2*-weighted protocol described.