Experimental intracranial septic infarction: magnetic resonance enhancement.
Intracranial brain abscess was produced in three monkeys by embolization of a small pledget of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) soaked in a broth of Staphylococcus aureus. Imaging of the chronic stable abscess was performed on the General Electric 8800 CT unit (Milwaukee, Wis.) and a 1.4 T superconducting small bore imaging system. Magnetic resonance imaging included saturation recovery, inversion recovery, and spin echo techniques. MR imaging was also performed after paramagnetic enhancement using gadolinium-DPTA (Gd-DTPA). Our results show that paramagnetic enhancement with T1-weighted imaging adds specificity and enables rapid assessment of abnormalities of the blood-brain barrier. T2-weighted imaging without paramagnetic enhancement was very sensitive in defining areas of abnormality in the brain but in our experiment lacked specificity. T2-weighted imaging with Gd-DTPA demonstrated no obvious change in the appearance of the lesion. The combination of T1-weighted Gd-DTPA and T2-weighted imaging appeared complementary in our experiment, and these images correlated well with the pathologic findings.
D000818:Animals; D001922:Brain Abscess / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D002544:Cerebral Infarction / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D008252:Macaca fascicularis; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D011859:Radiography; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology