NMR tissue characterization in intracranial tumors: preliminary results.

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has been shown to have high sensitivity for detecting intracranial pathology. A study was devised to determine what information about tissue characteristics can be derived from steady-state free-precession NMR images alone and when compared with computed tomographic (CT) scans. The flow-dependent sequences allow diagnosis of intrinsic vascular lesions. Whereas precise characterization of some pathologic groups such as fat-containing tumors is possible, other important groups cannot be clearly differentiated. Preliminary findings suggest that it may be possible to predict the texture of extrinsic tumors from their NMR signals.