Role of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) in grading gliomas comparable with pathology: A cross-sectional study from Syria

OBJECTIVE: Gliomas are one of the most common brain tumors in adults with a poor prognosis in most patients. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) plays a critical role in the diagnosis, management, and follow-up of gliomas. The aim of this study is to assess the sensitivity and specificity of MRI in the preoperative grading of supratentorial gliomas in comparison to histopathology. METHODS: A cross-sectional study included 39 patients, aged between 40 and 75 years with histologically diagnosed supratentorial gliomas who underwent conventional MR imaging, which included T1, T2, and FLAIR sequences from November 2018–December 2019 in the Department of Neurosurgery, Tishreen University Hospital, Lattakia. The histopathological typing and grading of the tumor were done by using 2016 WHO classification. The sensitivity, specificity, predictive value, and accuracy of MRI in determining tumor grade were calculated. The comparison was done between MRI findings and WHO histopathological grading. RESULTS: The overall sensitivity and specificity of MRI findings in the assessment of high-grade gliomas were 100% and 91% respectively. The positive predictive value (PPV) was 66.6%, and the negative predictive value (NPV) was 100%. The overall accuracy was 94.9%. The agreement between histopathological and MRI findings was 72%. CONCLUSIONS: MRI plays an essential role in the initial diagnosis and grading of supratentorial gliomas with high sensitivity and specificity. It is considered a non-invasive method and is useful in cases where the biopsy procedure is a contraindication or rejected by the patient.