Quantitative histology of peritumoural low density area associated with glioma on CT; image analyzing study of peritumoural low density area after steroid-osmotherapy.

In this study, an invasive site of the tumour cells was quantitatively investigated in the low density area (LDA) on computerized tomography (CT) after steroid and osmotic drug therapy (SOT) by using a texture image analyzing computer system (TAS). Twenty six patients with gliomas (10 benign, 16 malignant) were applied in this study. According to the effect to reduce the volume of LDA, patients were classified into three groups as follows; good, poor, and failed. The reduction effect of the low density volume was not significantly different between the benign and malignant gliomas. Cells including those with a large nucleus with 6.8-9.1 microns in diameter were not observed in the control group, but they were observed in the adjacent and distant parts from the centre of the enhanced tumour element in the peritumoural LDA with 0.87-0.99 percent of all cells in both the poor and failed groups. But in the good group they were significantly rarely observed in the peritumoural LDA after SOT (p less than 0.05). Furthermore, they were significantly frequently observed in the adjacent part from the centre of the enhanced tumour element in the peritumoural LDA with 0.9 percent of all cells after SOT in the malignant gliomas in comparison with the benign gliomas (p less than 0.05). Conclusively it was suggested that the treatment of glioma with peritumoural LDA on CT must be extended to the adjacent and distant part from the centre of the enhanced tumour element in the peritumoural LDA as well as the treatment of the enhanced tumour mass on CT in the poor and failed groups.