Applicability and advantages of flow artifact-insensitive fluid-attenuated inversion-recovery MR sequences for imaging the posterior fossa.
We describe a new sequence, flow artifact-insensitive fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FAIS-FLAIR), that capitalizes on the advantages of fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) while minimizing FLAIR-related artifacts such as those often encountered in the posterior fossa. Twenty-eight patients with posterior fossa disease underwent FAIS-FLAIR, conventional FLAIR, and spin-echo MR studies, and the findings yielded by the three techniques were compared. In this patient population, postcontrast FAIS-FLAIR imaging was obtained in 20 patients and compared with postcontrast T1-weighted images. The images were assessed for lesion conspicuity by three radiologists. FAIS-FLAIR markedly reduces the inflow artifacts from noninverted CSF on FLAIR images. It does so with and without contrast agent administration, and produces higher lesion conspicuity compared with T1- and T2-weighted spin-echo sequences and conventional FLAIR images of the posterior fossa.
Tanaka
N
N
Department of Radiology, Kurume University School of Medicine, Japan.
Abe
T
T
Kojima
K
K
Nishimura
H
H
Hayabuchi
N
N
D016477:Artifacts; D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003388:Cranial Fossa, Posterior / Q000473:pathology*; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged