MR contrast of ferritin and hemosiderin in the brain: comparison among gradient-echo, conventional spin-echo and fast spin-echo sequences.
OBJECTIVE
To compare the magnetic resonance image contrasts due to ferritin and hemosiderin in the brain tissue among different pulse sequences.


METHODS
Fourteen patients with cavernous hemangioma in the brain prospectively underwent MR imaging with T2*-weighted gradient-echo (GRE), T2-weighted conventional spin-echo (SE) and fast spin-echo (FSE) sequences. The relative contrast ratios (CRs) of the hypointense part of cavernous hemangioma, globus pallidus and putamen to the deep frontal white matter were measured on each pulse sequence and statistically analyzed using analysis of variance followed by paired t-test.


RESULTS
In the hypointense part of cavernous hemangioma, relative CRs were significantly lower on T2*-weighted GRE than on T2-weighted SE images (P=0.0001), and on T2-weighted SE than on T2-weighted FSE images (P=0.0001). In the globus pallidus, relative CRs were significantly lower on T2-weighted SE than on T2*-weighted GRE images (P=0.002), and on T2*-weighted GRE than on T2-weighted FSE images (P=0.0002). In the putamen, relative CRs were significantly lower on T2-weighted SE than on T2*-weighted GRE images (P=0.001), and there was no significant difference between CRs on T2-weighted FSE and T2*-weighted GRE images (P=0.90).


CONCLUSIONS
Hemosiderin showed best image contrast on T2*-weighted GRE images but ferritin showed more prominent image contrast on T2-weighted SE than on T2*-weighted GRE images, which may help to determine an appropriate pulse sequence in neurological diseases associated with excessive ferritin accumulation.
Haque
Tabassum Laz
TL
Department of Nuclear Medicine and Diagnostic Imaging, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan.
Miki
Yukio
Y
Kanagaki
Mitsunori
M
Takahashi
Takahiro
T
Yamamoto
Akira
A
Konishi
Junya
J
Nozaki
Kazuhiko
K
Hashimoto
Nobuo
N
Konishi
Junji
J
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D016543:Central Nervous System Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D005293:Ferritins / Q000032:analysis*; D020786:Hemangioma, Cavernous, Central Nervous System / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006485:Hemosiderin / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies
D005293:Ferritins; D006485:Hemosiderin