Role of MR spectroscopy and diffusion weighted MR images in differential diagnosis between brain abscess and brain tumor

Abstract

: Discrimination of brain abscess from cystic or necrotic brain tumor by CT or MR imaging might be difficult. That is mainly due to the combination of similarities in the unspecified clinical findings and the morphologic appearance. Recently, proton MR spectroscopy (H1-MRS) and diffusion weighted image (DWI) have been used to differentiate brain tumor and brain abscess noninvasively. This paper report the usefulness of MR spectroscopy and diffusion weighted MR image in differential diagnosis between brain abscess and brain tumor.