Risk Assessment by Presurgical Tractography Using Navigated TMS Maps in Patients with Highly Motor- or Language-Eloquent Brain Tumors

Patients with functionally eloquent brain lesions are at risk of functional decline in the course of resection. Given tumor-related plastic reshaping and reallocation of function, individual data are needed for patient counseling and risk assessment prior to surgery. This study evaluates the utility of mapping by navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation (nTMS) and nTMS-based diffusion tensor imaging fiber tracking (DTI FT) for individual risk evaluation of surgery-related decline of motor or language function in the clinical setting. In total, 250 preoperative nTMS mappings (100 language and 150 motor mappings) derived from 216 patients (mean age: 57.0 ± 15.5 years, 58.8% males; glioma World Health Organization (WHO) grade I & II: 4.2%, glioma WHO grade III & IV: 83.4%, arteriovenous malformations: 1.9%, cavernoma: 2.3%, metastasis: 8.2%) were included. Deterministic tractography based on nTMS motor or language maps as seed regions was performed with 25%, 50%, and 75% of the individual fractional anisotropy threshold (FAT). Lesion-to-tract distances (LTDs) were measured between the tumor mass and the corticospinal tract (CST), arcuate fascicle (AF), or other closest language-related tracts. LTDs were compared between patients and correlated to the functional status (no/transient/permanent surgery-related paresis or aphasia). Significant differences were found between patients with no or transient surgery-related deficits and patients with permanent surgery-related deficits regarding LTDs in relation to the CST (p < 0.0001), AF (p ≤ 0.0491), or other closest language-related tracts (p ≤ 0.0435). The cut-off values for surgery-related paresis or aphasia were ≤12 mm (LTD—CST) and ≤16 mm (LTD—AF) or ≤25 mm (LTD—other closest language-related tract), respectively. Moreover, there were significant associations between the status of surgery-related deficits and the LTD when considering the CST (range r: −0.3994 to −0.3910, p < 0.0001) or AF (range r: −0.2918 to −0.2592, p = 0.0135 and p = 0.0473 for 25% and 50% FAT). In conclusion, this is the largest study evaluating the application of both preoperative functional mapping and function-based tractography for motor and language function for risk stratification in patients with functionally eloquent tumors. The LTD may qualify as a viable marker that can be seamlessly assessed in the clinical neurooncological setup.