In vitro and in vivo MRS study of human glioma metabolites.

In this study an in vitro multinuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) characterization of water soluble metabolites and of the lipid fraction obtained from 19 human gliomas (12 glioblastomas, 3 anaplastic astrocytomas, 2 anaplastic oligodendrogliomas and 2 oligodendrogliomas) with a total of 27 surgical specimens, is reported. Moreover, some in vivo H-1 MRS results are shown. The regional metabolic heterogeneity of glioblastomas, according to their morphological heterogeneity, is documented. For glioblastomas a specific in vitro H-1 MRS metabolite profile cannot be defined. Low and high grade oligodendrogliomas showed characteristic choline/creatine and alanine/creatine metabolite ratios. The spectroscopical characterization of histopathological factors concerning malignant gliomas is shown.