Aim of study was to determine the diagnostic accuracy of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in preoperative diagnosis of primary intra–axial tumors and grading of gliomas compared with histopathology.

It was a Prospective analytical study .

53  patients were included in the study who were provisionally diagnosed radiologically having intra–axial brain tumor or subsequently found to have pathologically proven primary intra–axial brain tumors.

RESULTS: The study included 53 patients with age ranging from 1–year 10–months to 70 years(mean 32.7 years). Twenty seven patients had supratentorial tumors (51%) and 26 had infratentorial tumors (49%). Twentyseven patients had Astrocytoma (51%), 10 had Oligodendroglioma(19%), 7 had Medulloblastoma (13%), 5 had Lymphoma (9%), and 4 had Hemangioblastoma(7%). Preoperative MRI diagnosis was correct in 50 patients with accuracy of  94%. No significant difference was found between preoperative MRI grading and postoperative histopathological grade of intra–axial tumor (p–value>0.05). Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of  MRI in detecting  tumor necrosis were 93%, 77%, 80% and 90% while for detecting tumor haemorrhage were 57%, 93%, 57%, and 93% respectively.

CONCLUSION: MRI is very accurate in preoperative diagnosis, staging and assessing the tumor characteristics of primary intra–axial brain tumors.