Value of 7 Tesla in gliomas

The 7 Tesla MRI is an ultrahigh field MRI system and shows great potential for the use in
clinical practice. In patients with glioma the 7 Tesla MRI may have an additional role in monitoring
treatment response and tumor progression, since at lower field MRI systems it is still difficult to
differentiate between radionecrosis and tumor recurrence. In different neurological diseases it has
already been proven that the 7 Tesla MRI provides additional information compared to lower field MRI
systems.
The primary aim of this study is to identify and describe radiological tumor characteristics in
glioma on 7 Tesla MRI compared to standard 1.5/3 Tesla MRI. The secondary aim is to develop an MRI
scan protocol for gliomas on 7 Tesla MRI.
The study "value of 7 Tesla in glioma" is across-sectional pilot study. For this pilot study
we aim to include 25 glioma patients.
The study population consists of adult patients with a histologically proven or
highly suspected glioma. With the standard imaging protocol of the 1.5/3 Tesla MRI (T1W1
with and without gadolinium, T2W1, FLAIR, perfusion(DSC), DWI) and a newly developed 7 Tesla
MRI scan protocol (3DT1, 3DT2, TOF, FLAIR T2*, MRS, CEST) we assess radiological tumor
characteristics and the effects of antitumor treatment.

Compared to the lower field MR systems, 7 Tesla MRI has an additional role in
identifying tumor characteristics.

The work towards the secondary outcome objective is initiated at the start of the study. The development for the most optimal protocol is performed prior starting scanning patients and its feasibility is confirmed while the study is ongoing. For this, adjustments to the the 7T MRI image sequences are performed to obtain 1. high quality images, 2. a scanning protocol within reasonable time limits (60min).
The primary objective goal is reached after all patients have been included. However preliminary assessment of results will be done during inclusion. This study is also conducted at the 7T MRI, with the protocol resulting from the previous optimization step. The results obtained for this step will mostly result from medical/radiological expertise and visual evaluation.