Imaging endolymphatic hydrops at 3 tesla using 3D-FLAIR with intratympanic Gd-DTPA administration.
OBJECTIVE
Visualization of endolymphatic hydrops by 3-dimensional fluid-attenuated inversion recovery-FLAIR using conventional turbo-spin-echo (3D-FLAIR-CONV) after intratympanic injection of Gd-DTPA has been reported in patients with Ménière's disease. Compared to 3D-FLAIR-CONV used in previous studies, the addition of a variable flip-angle technique (3D-FLAIR-VFL) enables very long echo trains and, therefore, shorter scan times. We evaluated whether 3D-FLAIR-VFL could replace 3D-FLAIR-CONV in detecting endolymphatic hydrops after intratympanic Gd-DTPA administration.


METHODS
Eleven patients were included in this study. Twenty-four hours after Gd-DTPA injection, we performed 3D-FLAIR-CONV and 3D-FLAIR-VFL imaging at 3T. We compared the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) between cochlear fluid and the cerebellum between the 2 FLAIR sequences. We subjectively scored the size of the endolymphatic space in the cochlea and vestibule for each patient and correlated the scores with the clinical diagnoses.


RESULTS
The CNR of 3D-FLAIR-CONV was significantly higher than that of 3D-FLAIR-VFL. Scores for the size of endolymphatic space in the vestibule were identical between the 2 sequences; however, those in the cochlea disagreed in 3 cases. 3D-FLAIR-CONV correlated better with the clinical diagnoses.


CONCLUSIONS
Currently, we may not be able to replace 3D-FLAIR-CONV with 3D-FLAIR-VFL, at least not with the scanning parameters used in the present study.
Naganawa
Shinji
S
Department of Radiology, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan. naganawa@med.nagoya-u.ac.jp
Satake
Hiroko
H
Iwano
Shingo
S
Fukatsu
Hiroshi
H
Sone
Michihiko
M
Nakashima
Tsutomu
T
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000465:Algorithms; D003287:Contrast Media / Q000008:administration & dosage; D018159:Endolymphatic Hydrops / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D019786:Gadolinium DTPA / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D014432:Tympanic Membrane
D003287:Contrast Media; D019786:Gadolinium DTPA