MRI EVALUATION OF MEDULLOBLASTOMA WITH HISTOPAHTOLOGICAL CORRELATION

Background and Objective: Medulloblastoma is the commonest tumor in children in infratentorial location that is highly malignant, fast growing neoplasm with varying degrees of histological variations. Normally the surgical resection is the common treatment followed by radiotherapy and chemotherapy. MRI can be used as primary imaging technique in such patients prior to surgery, during the follow-up and in post-operative phase. The sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy of this procedure was evaluated in this study. Methods: One hundred and ten patients with clinical suspicion medulloblastoma were taken and magnetic resonance imaging was performed. Histopathological results were recorded and compared taking histopathology as gold standard. Results: The mean age of the patients was 11.08 ± 4.06. Out of a total of 110 patients 65 (59.1%) were males and 45 (40.9%) were females. Fifty patients (45.45%) were labeled as having medulloblastoma on MRI while 60 patients (54.55%) were not labelled as medulloblastoma. Fifty three patients (48.18%) were diagnosed as medulloblastoma on histopathology while 57 patients (51.8%) were not labelled as medulloblastoma. The sensitivity of MRI was 86.79%, specificity 92.98%, diagnostic accuracy 90.0%, positive predictive value 90% and negative predictive value 88.33%. Conclusion: Magnetic Resonance Imaging is a precise, non-invasive, safe and convenient imaging modality for the evaluation of medulloblastoma even for small tumor size.