Artikel
Depiction of cerebral arteriovenous malformations with susceptibility weighted imaging at 7 Tesla shows unexpected vessel contrasts
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Veröffentlicht: | 4. Juni 2012 |
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Objective: Unexpected and previously undescribed vessel contrast is illustrated in susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI) of cerebral arteriovenous malformations (AVM) and arteriovenous fistulas (AVF) at 7 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging.
Methods: Six neurosurgical patients (average age 38.7 years; range 21–58 years) suffering from cerebral AVM (male n=2; female n=3) and AVF (male n=1) were scanned at 7 Tesla using SWI and time-of-flight (TOF) magnetic resonance angiography (MRA).
Results: All subjects tolerated the examination well and could be successfully examined at 7 Tesla MRI within a total acquisition time of less than 45 minutes per scan. Mean signal intensity of feeding vessels was 1.71%, 10.86%, 11.43%, 5.64%, 7.45%, and 4.37% (mean ± SD = 6.9% ± 3.8%) of draining vessel intensity for Subjects 1–6, respectively.
Conclusions: Vessel contrasts in SWI sequences depicted in cerebral AVM and AVF at 7 Tesla MRI were unexpectedly inverted, with the draining vessels being brighter than the arterial feeders. These contrasts can be explained by SWI sequence properties as well as blood oxygenation and flow. For reliable clinical use of SWI, complementary information such as TOF MRA can help to reduce false vessel identification.