Clinical evaluation of thallium-201 SPECT in supratentorial gliomas: relationship to histologic grade, prognosis and proliferative activities.

We performed 201Tl SPECT and cell kinetic studies on 28 presurgical patients with supratentorial gliomas by administering bromodeoxyuridine (BUdR). All patients had surgery and had follow-up for more than 25 mo. In patients with grade IV glioma (198.1% +/- 32.8%, n = 10), the 201Tl index, expressed as the count rate of the tumor site to the count rate over the contralateral normal region, was significantly higher than that in patients with grade III glioma (140.5% +/- 15.1%, n = 4, p < 0.01) or low-grade glioma (104.1% +/- 22.6%, n = 14, p < 0.001). A significant correlation was observed between the 201Tl index and BUdR-positive cells in excised tumor specimens (r = 0.67, p < 0.001). The 201Tl index of the 12 patients who died was higher than those who survived (173.2% versus 122.4%, p < 0.01). These results show the clinical utility of 201Tl brain SPECT in imaging supratentorial glioma and that the 201Tl index is representative of proliferative activity of the tumor.