Effectiveness of a high relaxivity contrast agent administered at half dose in dynamic susceptibility contrast MRI of brain gliomas.
PURPOSE
To determine whether half of the approved dose of gadobenate dimeglumine (MultiHance) is as effective as a full dose of gadoterate meglumine (Dotarem) for qualitative and quantitative cerebral blood volume (CBV) perfusion evaluation at 3T in patients with brain gliomas.


MATERIALS AND METHODS
We enrolled 65 adult patients in an interindividual comparative study. Patients were randomized to one of two study arms: 33 patients received 0.1 mmol/kg body weight (bw) of gadoterate, 32 patients received 0.05 mmol/kg bw of gadobenate. The patients underwent identical examinations at 3T. Arterial input function (AIF), tissue function (TF), and the maximum tumor CBV (CBV_T) were obtained from each patient. The quality of the CBV maps were independently reviewed by two neuroradiologists blinded to the administered contrast agent.


RESULTS
The administration of a half dose of gadobenate led to a roughly 40% reduction in signal drop compared to that achieved with a full dose of gadoterate (P values for AIF and TF maximum and integral were <0.01); quantitative and qualitative assessment of CBV maps revealed no difference between contrast agents (P values for CBV_T of high- and low-grade gliomas, image quality evaluation were 0.87, 0.48, >0.65, respectively) CONCLUSION: The CBV maps obtained with a half dose gadobenate (0.05 mmol/kg bw) are of comparable diagnostic quality as the corresponding images acquired with a full dose of gadoterate (0.1 mmol/kg bw).


LEVEL OF EVIDENCE
2 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2017;45:500-506.
['Crisi|Girolamo|G|', 'Filice|Silvano|S|0000-0002-7972-7362', 'Erb|Gunter|G|', 'Bozzetti|Francesca|F|']
D000328:Adult D001932:Brain Neoplasms D003287:Contrast Media D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug D005260:Female D005910:Glioma D006801:Humans D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging D008297:Male D008536:Meglumine D008875:Middle Aged D009942:Organometallic Compounds D015203:Reproducibility of Results D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
relaxivity cerebral blood volume brain tumors gadolinium-based contrast agent perfusion magnetic resonance imaging