Contrast enhancement of intracranial lesions at 1.5 T: comparison among 2D spin echo, black-blood (BB) Cube, and BB Cube-FLAIR sequences

• Published in: European radiology Vol. 25; no. 11; pp. 3175 - 3186
• Main Authors: Im, SungWoon, Ashikaga, Ryuichiro, Yagyu, Yukinobu, Wakayama, Tetsuya, Miyoshi, Mitsuharu, Hyodo, Tomoko, Imaoka, Izumi, Kumano, Seishi, Ishii, Kazunari, Murakami, Takamichi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.11.2015; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Brain - anatomy & histology; Brain Neoplasms - diagnosis; Brain Neoplasms - secondary; Cerebrovascular Circulation - physiology; Contrast Media; Diagnostic Radiology; Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Female; Gadolinium DTPA; Humans; Image Enhancement - methods; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted - methods; Imaging; Internal Medicine; Interventional Radiology; Magnetic Resonance; Magnetic resonance imaging; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Male; Medical imaging; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Middle Aged; Neuroimaging; Neuroradiology; Phantoms, Imaging; Radiology; Ultrasound; Japan; Magnetic resonance imaging; Cube; black-blood (BB) imaging; Contrast enhancement; 3D fast spin-echo (FSE)
• ISSN: 0938-7994; 1432-1084
• DOI: 10.1007/s00330-015-3757-5

Objectives The purpose of this study was to investigate the usefulness of T1W black-blood Cube (BB Cube) and T1W BB Cube fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (BB Cube-FLAIR) sequences for contrast-enhanced brain imaging, by evaluating flow-related artefacts, detectability, and contrast ratio (CR) of intracranial lesions among these sequences and T1W-SE. Methods Phantom studies were performed to determine the optimal parameters of BB Cube and BB Cube-FLAIR. A clinical study in 23 patients with intracranial lesions was performed to evaluate the usefulness of these two sequences for the diagnosis of intracranial lesions compared with the conventional 2D T1W-SE sequence. Results The phantom study revealed that the optimal parameters for contrast-enhanced T1W imaging were TR/TE = 500 ms/minimum in BB Cube and TR/TE/TI = 600 ms/minimum/300 ms in BB Cube-FLAIR imaging. In the clinical study, the degree of flow-related artefacts was significantly lower in BB Cube and BB Cube-FLAIR than in T1W-SE. Regarding tumour detection, BB Cube showed the best detectability; however, there were no significant differences in CR among the sequences. Conclusions At 1.5 T, contrast-enhanced BB Cube was a better imaging sequence for detecting brain lesions than T1W-SE or BB Cube-FLAIR. Key Points • Cube is a single-slab 3D FSE imaging sequence. • We applied a black-blood (BB) imaging technique to T1W Cube. • At 1.5 T, contrast-enhanced T1W BB Cube was valuable for detecting brain lesions.