Quantitative evaluation of diffusion tensor imaging for clinical management of glioma

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), assessing physiological motion of water in vivo, provides macroscopic view of microstructures of white matter in the central nervous system, and such imaging technique had been extensively used for the clinical treatment and research of glioma. This review mainly focuses on illuminating the merits of quantitative evaluation of DTI for glioma management. The content of the article includes DTI’s application on tissue characterization, white matter tracts mapping, radiotherapy delineation, post-therapy outcome assessment, and multimodal imaging. At last, we elucidate a synoptic presentation of DTI limitation, which is critical for physicians making DTI-based clinical decisions in glioma management.