Evaluation of late cerebral vascular complications in cranially irradiated pediatric cancer patients with magnetic resonance angiography

PubMedID: 28315509Background: We aimed to establish the early diagnosis of cerebral vascular complications by using cerebral magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) in patients who were treated with cranial RT in childhood as part of their cancer treatment. Procedure: Patients who had received cranial RT before the age of 18 and had been in remission for at least 1 year were enrolled in the study. A data form including demographic and clinical characteristics and findings of cerebral MRA was filled in for each patient. Results: Cerebral MRA examination was performed between November 2013 and October 2015 in 53 patients who met the inclusion criteria. Abnormalities were found in 7 patients (13.2%). All patients were asymptomatic at the time of examination. There was a significant difference between patients in the abnormality-positive and abnormality-negative groups related to cranial radiation dose (p = 0.013) and age at the time of examination (p = 0.015) in univariate analysis. In multivariate analysis, cranial radiation dose was found to have an impact on developing cerebral vascular abnormalities (p = 0.045). Conclusions: Cerebral MRA is a noninvasive method of follow-up for late cerebral vascular complications in surviving pediatric oncology patients who were treated with cranial RT as part of their cancer treatment. © Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori 2017