TY - JOUR
T1 - The patients’ experience of neuroimaging of primary brain tumors
T2 - a cross-sectional survey study
AU - Wamelink, Ivar J. H. G.
AU - Hempel, Hugo L.
AU - Vries, Mark H. M.
AU - de Witt Hamer, Philip
AU - Barkhof, Frederik
AU - Keil, Vera C.
AU - van de Giessen, Elsmarieke
N1 - Funding Information: The authors do not have any acknowledgements. Publisher Copyright: © 2023, The Author(s).
PY - 2023/4/1
Y1 - 2023/4/1
N2 - Purpose: To gain insight into how patients with primary brain tumors experience MRI, follow-up protocols, and gadolinium-based contrast agent (GBCA) use. Methods: Primary brain tumor patients answered a survey after their MRI exam. Questions were analyzed to determine trends in patients’ experience regarding the scan itself, follow-up frequency, and the use of GBCAs. Subgroup analysis was performed on sex, lesion grade, age, and the number of scans. Subgroup comparison was made using the Pearson chi-square test and the Mann–Whitney U-test for categorical and ordinal questions, respectively. Results: Of the 100 patients, 93 had a histopathologically confirmed diagnosis, and seven were considered to have a slow-growing low-grade tumor after multidisciplinary assessment and follow-up. 61/100 patients were male, with a mean age ± standard deviation of 44 ± 14 years and 46 ± 13 years for the females. Fifty-nine patients had low-grade tumors. Patients consistently underestimated the number of their previous scans. 92% of primary brain tumor patients did not experience the MRI as bothering and 78% would not change the number of follow-up MRIs. 63% of the patients would prefer GBCA-free MRI scans if diagnostically equally accurate. Women found the MRI and receiving intravenous cannulas significantly more uncomfortable than men (p = 0.003). Age, diagnosis, and the number of previous scans had no relevant impact on the patient experience. Conclusion: Patients with primary brain tumors experienced current neuro-oncological MRI practice as positive. Especially women would, however, prefer GBCA-free imaging if diagnostically equally accurate. Patient knowledge of GBCAs was limited, indicating improvable patient information.
AB - Purpose: To gain insight into how patients with primary brain tumors experience MRI, follow-up protocols, and gadolinium-based contrast agent (GBCA) use. Methods: Primary brain tumor patients answered a survey after their MRI exam. Questions were analyzed to determine trends in patients’ experience regarding the scan itself, follow-up frequency, and the use of GBCAs. Subgroup analysis was performed on sex, lesion grade, age, and the number of scans. Subgroup comparison was made using the Pearson chi-square test and the Mann–Whitney U-test for categorical and ordinal questions, respectively. Results: Of the 100 patients, 93 had a histopathologically confirmed diagnosis, and seven were considered to have a slow-growing low-grade tumor after multidisciplinary assessment and follow-up. 61/100 patients were male, with a mean age ± standard deviation of 44 ± 14 years and 46 ± 13 years for the females. Fifty-nine patients had low-grade tumors. Patients consistently underestimated the number of their previous scans. 92% of primary brain tumor patients did not experience the MRI as bothering and 78% would not change the number of follow-up MRIs. 63% of the patients would prefer GBCA-free MRI scans if diagnostically equally accurate. Women found the MRI and receiving intravenous cannulas significantly more uncomfortable than men (p = 0.003). Age, diagnosis, and the number of previous scans had no relevant impact on the patient experience. Conclusion: Patients with primary brain tumors experienced current neuro-oncological MRI practice as positive. Especially women would, however, prefer GBCA-free imaging if diagnostically equally accurate. Patient knowledge of GBCAs was limited, indicating improvable patient information.
KW - Gadolinium
KW - Magnetic resonance imaging
KW - Primary brain neoplasms
KW - Survey
UR - https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?partnerID=HzOxMe3b&scp=85151286639&origin=inward
UR - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36977844
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85151286639&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s11060-023-04290-x
DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s11060-023-04290-x
M3 - Article
C2 - 36977844
SN - 0167-594X
VL - 162
SP - 307
EP - 315
JO - Journal of Neuro-Oncology
JF - Journal of Neuro-Oncology
IS - 2
ER -