A preliminary study of the clinical application of optic pathway diffusion tensor tractography in suprasellar tumor surgery: preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative assessment.

OBJECT Visual impairments are the most common objective manifestations of suprasellar lesions. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is a noninvasive MRI modality that depicts the subcortical white matter tracts in vivo. In this study the authors tested the value of visual pathway tractography in comparison with visual field and visual acuity analyses. METHODS This prospective study consisted of 25 patients with progressive visual impairment due to suprasellar mass lesions and 6 control patients with normal vision without such lesions. Visual acuity, visual field, and the optic fundus were examined preoperatively and repeated 1 week and 3 months after surgery. Visual pathway DTI tractography was performed preoperatively, intraoperatively immediately after tumor resection, and 1 week and 3 months after surgery. RESULTS In the control group, pre- and postoperative visual status were normal and visual pathway tractography revealed fibers crossing the optic chiasm without any alteration. In patients with suprasellar lesions, vision improved in 24 of 25. The mean distance between optic tracts in tractography decreased after tumor resection and detectable fibers crossing the optic chiasm increased from 12% preoperatively to 72% postoperatively 3 months after tumor resection, and undetectable fibers crossing the optic chiasm decreased from 88% preoperatively to 27% postoperatively 3 months after tumor resection. Visual improvement after tumor removal 1 week and 3 months after surgery was significantly correlated with the distance between optic tracts in intraoperative tractography (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS Visual pathway DTI tractography appears to be a promising adjunct to the standard clinical and paraclinical visual examinations in patients with suprasellar mass lesions. The intraoperative findings, in particular the distance between optic tract fibers, can predict visual outcome after tumor resection. Furthermore, postoperative application of this technique may be useful in following anterior optic pathway recovery.