Evaluation of pituitary tumor texture using Synthetic MRI

Motivation: Surgery selection mainly relies on texture of pituitary adenomas. There is rarely a non-invasive imaging method to identify texture of pituitary adenomas that greatly determines surgical selection and outcomes. Goal(s): To explore the predictive performance of synthetic MRI in types of pituitary tumors. Approach: T1, T2 and PD values of every tumor were measured and divided into the solid and soft tumor groups according to the histology results of surgical samples. Results: Synthetic MRI-computed T2 and PD values were significantly higher in the soft pituitary tumor group than in the solid group (P<0.05) with cutoff values of 110.83 ms and 87.3 p.u., respectively. Impact: Both T2 and PD value can assist surgeons in determination of surgical treatments (e.g. transsphenoidal resection or craniotomy) and prediction of surgical outcomes, such as resection completeness, indicating synthetic MRI could a strong imaging marker.