Classification of IDH mutation with Arterial Spin Labeling and Dynamic Susceptibility Contrast MRI in adult gliomas

IDH genotype status is an important marker in glioma diagnostics. Given that IDH mutation affects the tumor vascularization pattern, perfusion imaging has the potential to become a non-invasive tumor histopathology assessor. In this study, two methods of perfusion MRI – Dynamic Susceptibility Contrast (DSC) and Arterial Spin Labeling (ASL) – were compared in their ability to assess IDH mutation status. DSC- and ASL-derived perfusion maps correlated significantly and were feasible parameters in the IDH classification task. Mean tumor CBF quantified with ASL had the highest AUC score, sensitivity, and specificity, supporting the feasibility of using ASL in clinical glioma diagnostics.