Keywords
How to Cite
Abstract
Background: Intra-axial brain gliomas are among the most common primary central nervous system tumors, with variable prognosis depending on their histopathological grade.
Objective: To determine the diagnostic accuracy of magnetic resonance imaging in characterizing intra-axial brain gliomas, taking histopathology as the gold standard.
Methods: This cross-sectional validation study was conducted at the Department of Radiology, Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital, Lahore, from January 2025 to May 2025. A total of 127 patients aged 20–70 years with suspected intra-axial gliomas were included using consecutive sampling. All patients underwent MRI using a 1.5 Tesla scanner, and findings were interpreted by an experienced radiologist. Subsequently, histopathological examination was performed following biopsy.
Results: MRI diagnosed 72 (56.7%) cases as malignant, while histopathology confirmed 68 (53.5%) malignant cases. MRI showed a sensitivity of 88.2%, specificity of 79.7%, PPV of 83.3%, and NPV of 85.5%. The overall diagnostic accuracy of MRI was 84.3%. ROC curve analysis demonstrated good diagnostic performance with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.86.
Conclusion: MRI is a reliable non-invasive imaging modality with high diagnostic accuracy in characterizing intra-axial brain gliomas. However, histopathology remains the gold standard for definitive diagnosis and tumor grading.