Evaluation of MR cisternography of the cerebellopontine angle using a balanced fast-field-echo sequence: preliminary findings

• Published in: European radiology Vol. 14; no. 2; pp. 239 - 242
• Main Authors: Tsuchiya, Kazuhiro, Aoki, Chinatsu, Hachiya, Junichi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Germany Springer Nature B.V 01.02.2004
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Brain; Cerebellopontine Angle - pathology; Child; Cochlear Nerve - pathology; Facial Nerve - pathology; Facial Nerve Diseases - diagnosis; Female; Hemifacial Spasm - diagnosis; Humans; Image Enhancement - instrumentation; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted - instrumentation; Imaging, Three-Dimensional - instrumentation; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - instrumentation; Male; Middle Aged; Nerve Compression Syndromes - diagnosis; Neuroma, Acoustic - diagnosis; Pneumoencephalography - instrumentation; Reference Values; Sensitivity and Specificity
• ISSN: 0938-7994; 1432-1084
• DOI: 10.1007/s00330-003-2074-6

We evaluated the feasibility of MR cisternography by the balanced fast-field-echo (bFFE) sequence, comparing with that by a turbo-spin-echo (TSE) sequence, for cerebellopontine angle lesions on a 1.5-T imager (Gyroscan Intera, Philips, Best, The Netherlands). The bFFE MR cisternograms depicted target cranial nerves with less cerebrospinal fluid pulsation artifacts than TSE cisternograms and visualized an acoustic schwannoma in 6 of 44 patients with suspicion and a causative vessel of hemifacial spasm in all of 3 patients in a short scanning time (1 min 53 s). The bFFE sequence can be promising for MR cisternography in the diagnosis of cerebellopontine angle lesions.