title: The venous angioarchitecture of sporadic cerebral cavernous malformations: a susceptibility weighted imaging study at 7 T MRI.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To test the hypothesis that sporadic cerebral cavernous malformations (CCMs) are systematically associated with venous malformations (VMs) using susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI) at 7 Tesla (T) field MRI.
  
  
  METHODS
  A prospective unselected series of 20 patients with symptomatic or asymptomatic sporadic CCM diagnosed using 1.5 T MRI was additionally scanned using high resolution (250 µm(2) in-plane) SWI at 7 T MRI. Imaging data were analysed to examine the presence and formation of CCM associated venous vessel structures. Interobserver agreement was assessed using kappa statistics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the 20 patients harbouring 23 CCMs, a solitary or multiple venous drainage was found in all lesions. A 'typical' VM was found in seven lesions. In the other cases, associated abnormal venous structures were also depicted although they appeared structurally different. Excellent interobserver agreement was achieved (95% confidence interval 0.92 to 0.99).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our data support previous assumptions that sporadic CCMs are systematically associated with local venous abnormalities involving larger outflow vessels. However, the typical appearance of a VM was not confirmed in all cases. The role of the venous environment in the pathomechanism of CCMs remains unclear.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospital Essen, Hufelandstrasse 55, Essen 45122, Germany. philipp.dammann@uk-essen.de
authors.forename: Philipp
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dammann
authors.forename: Karsten H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Wrede
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Maderwald
authors.forename: Nicolai
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: El Hindy
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Mueller
authors.forename: Bixia
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Bernd-Otto
authors.initials: BO
authors.lastname: Hütter
authors.forename: Mark E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Ladd
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schlamann
authors.forename: I Erol
authors.initials: IE
authors.lastname: Sandalcioglu
authors.forename: Ulrich
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Sure
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D020785:Central Nervous System Vascular Malformations / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology*; D002550:Cerebral Veins / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D020786:Hemangioma, Cavernous, Central Nervous System / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D059906:Neuroimaging / Q000379:methods*; D011446:Prospective Studies