Comparison of multishot echo-planar fluid-attenuated inversion-recovery imaging with fast spin-echo fluid-attenuated inversion-recovery and T2-weighted imaging in depiction of white matter lesions.
OBJECTIVE
To compare a multishot echo-planar fluid-attenuated inversion-recovery (EPI-FLAIR) sequence with fast spin-echo FLAIR (F-FLAIR) and fast spin-echo T2-weighted (FSE-T2W) sequences in depiction of white matter lesions.


METHODS
Thirty-five patients with various white matter lesions were included in this prospective study. Two independent readers for lesion detection (lesion size, >2 mm) compared sequences quantitatively. In 22 patients, contrast was calculated between periventricular hyperintensity (PVH) and the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).


RESULTS
EPI-FLAIR revealed more lesions than FSE-T2W (p < 0.01). However, F-FLAIR revealed more lesions than EPI-FLAIR (p < 0.01). For PVH-to-CSF contrast, EPI-FLAIR demonstrated significantly higher contrast than FSE-T2W. There were no differences in PVH-to-CSF contrast between EPI-FLAIR and F-FLAIR.


CONCLUSIONS
This study shows that EPI-FLAIR has distinct advantages over FSE-T2W in the depiction of white matter lesions. Although EPI-FLAIR reduces imaging time by more than 60% relative to F-FLAIR, it cannot replace F-FLAIR for the detection of lesions in the cerebral white matter.
Tomura
Noriaki
N
Department of Radiology, Akita University School of Medicine, 1-1-1, Hondo, Akita City, Akita, 010-8543, Japan. tomura@med.akita-u.ac.jp
Kato
Koki
K
Takahashi
Satoshi
S
Sashi
Ryuji
R
Sakuma
Ikuo
I
Narita
Komei
K
Watarai
Jiro
J
D000368:Aged; D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000473:pathology*; D017352:Echo-Planar Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies