Demonstration of Distinct Iron Deposition Patterns in Gliomas using 7T Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping

Evidence has shown that abnormal iron levels and gliomas are heavily correlated. Due to this, iron presents a possibility to serve as a glioma biomarker. This study will utilize susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) to identify the glioma, and quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) to explicitly classify iron deposits in the glioma on an ultra-high field (7T) scanner. A total of 6 untreated glioma patients with high- and low-grade gliomas underwent 7T QSM. Patients with high-grade gliomas showed distinct, geometric iron deposits that low-grade gliomas did not. These results illustrate that 7T QSM may be helpful in classifying low- and high-grade gliomas.