Comparison of short inversion time inversion recovery (STIR) and fat-saturated (chemsat) techniques for background fat intensity suppression in cervical and thoracic MR imaging.
The purpose of this study was to compare short inversion time inversion recovery (STIR) fast spin-echo (FSE), and fat-saturated T2-weighted FSE sequences in terms of uniformity of fat suppression and lesion conspicuity for magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of the neck and thorax. STIR FSE and fat-saturated T2-weighted FSE images were scored for uniformity of fat suppression (n = 40) and lesion conspicuity (n = 35). Five-point rank score analyses were utilized by three experienced radiologists. The mean scores of STIR and fat-saturated FSE techniques for uniformity of fat suppression were 4.3 and 2.3, respectively (P < 0.0001). The mean scores of STIR and fat-saturated FSE techniques for lesion conspicuity were 4.2 and 3.5, respectively (P < 0.0001). Insufficient fat suppression was prominent in the mandible, supraclavicular region, anterior mediastinum, epipericardial fat, and subdiaphragmatic fat. In addition, fat-saturated T2-weighted FSE showed inadvertent water suppression in 25%. The STIR FSE technique was superior to the fat-saturated FSE technique for cervical and thoracic MR imaging.
Nakatsu
M
M
Department of Nuclear Medicine and Diagnostic Imaging, Kyoto University Hospital, Japan.
Hatabu
H
H
Itoh
H
H
Morikawa
K
K
Miki
Y
Y
Kasagi
K
K
Shimono
T
T
Shoji
K
K
Shimada
Y
Y
Imamura
M
M
Konishi
J
J
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009333:Neck; D013896:Thoracic Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis; D013909:Thorax