Conspicuity of diffuse axonal injury lesions on diffusion-weighted MR imaging.
OBJECTIVE
(1) To detect diffuse axonal injury (DAI) lesions by diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), as compared with fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) imaging and (2) to evaluate hemorrhagic DAI lesions by b0 images obtained from DWI, as compared with gradient-echo (GRE) imaging.


METHODS
We reviewed MR images of 36 patients with a diagnosis of DAI. MR imaging was performed 20 h to 14 days (mean, 3.7 days) after traumatic brain injury. We evaluated: (1) conspicuity of lesions on DWI and FLAIR and (2) conspicuity of hemorrhage in DAI lesions on b0 images and GRE imaging.


RESULTS
DWI clearly depicted high-signal DAI lesions. The sensitivity of DWI to lesional conspicuity in DAI lesions was almost equal to that of FLAIR. The sensitivity of b0 images to identification of hemorrhagic DAI lesions was inferior to that of GRE.


CONCLUSIONS
DWI is as useful as FLAIR in detecting DAI lesions. GRE imaging is still the superior tool for the evaluation of hemorrhagic DAI.
Kinoshita
Toshibumi
T
Department of Radiology, Division of Neuroradiology, University of Rochester Medical Center, 601 Elmwood Avenue, Box 648, Rochester, NY 14642, USA. kino@grape.med.tottori-u.ac.jp
Moritani
Toshio
T
Hiwatashi
Akio
A
Wang
Henry Z
HZ
Shrier
David A
DA
Numaguchi
Yuji
Y
Westesson
Per-Lennart A
PL
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016477:Artifacts; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D020833:Diffuse Axonal Injury / Q000175:diagnosis*; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D017352:Echo-Planar Imaging / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity