A study of Sang et al., from the Department of Neurosurgery, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China, confirmed that the application of neuronavigation based on DTI with or without the BOLD signal in adult glioma surgery can improve postoperative quality of life and lengthen the survival time of patients, especially in cases involving the brainstem and the eloquent subregion 1).
Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) attempts to aid in the preservation of subcortical networks by providing a framework for localizing tracts in relation to the surgical target. DTI takes advantage of the anisotropic diffusion of water along white matter fiber bundles, which can be assessed with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Postprocessing platforms are used to map the tracts, which can then be integrated into neuronavigation. This permits the neurosurgeon to ascertain the location and orientation of major white matter tracts for preoperative and intraoperative decision making.