Predictive Value of Preoperative Diffusion Tensor Imaging for Evaluating Postoperative Outcomes of Supratentorial Glioma in the Motor Function Area

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to assess the predictive value of preoperative diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data for surgical outcomes of patients with supratentorial glioma in the motor function area. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This is a retrospective study of 43 patients receiving navigation-guided surgery for histopathologically demonstrated supratentorial glioma in the motor function area. All patients underwent preoperative 3 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging examinations with conventional and DTI sequences. Data on preoperative imaging and pre- and postoperative clinical characteristics of patients were retrospectively collected. Univariate and multivariate linear regressions were applied to analyze the relationships between preoperative parameters and pre- and postoperative muscle strength and the Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) score. RESULTS: Fourteen patients had low-grade gliomas and 29 had high-grade gliomas. Although the corticospinal tract (CST) score did not differ significantly between tumor grades, edema and deviation were common in low-grade gliomas (64.3%), while destroyed and infiltrated lesions were common in high-grade gliomas (58.6%). Muscle strength improved after surgery in the deviated tract group (40%) more than in the infiltrated tract group (33.3%). Two independent indices, preoperative muscle strength (p = 0.000) and glioma-to-CST distance (p = 0.001), were linearly related to postoperative muscle strength. The preoperative KPS score was the only indicator that affected the postoperative KPS score (p = 0.000). CONCLUSION: DTI should be considered in surgical management of supratentorial gliomas in the motor function area to determine the appropriate surgical strategy and predict the nature of the tumor and postoperative motor function.