Title: FLAIR MR Imaging for Diagnosing Intracranial Meningeal Carcinomatosis
Abstract: OBJECTIVE. The purpose of this study was to compare unenhanced and contrast-enhanced fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) imaging with other sequences to visualize meningeal carcinomatosis. MATERIALS AND METHODS. Unenhanced FLAIR images were compared with spinecho T2-weighted and contrast-enhanced FLAIR images in five patients with documented meningeal carcinomatosis and four patients with suspected meningeal carcinomatosis. Comparisons were also made between contrast-enhanced T1-weighted and FLAIR images. RESULTS. In six patients, the unenhanced FLAIR images showed areas of abnormal hyperintensity within the sulci that were not noted on the spin-echo T2-weighted images. In all patients, the contrast-enhanced FLAIR images also showed meningeal enhancement, periventricular enhancement, or both. The contrast-enhanced T1-weighted and FLAIR images were equivalent in their depiction of abnormal enhancement in five of the nine patients; contrast-enhanced FLAIR images were superior in three patients. CONCLUSION. Unenhanced FLAIR images are of more value than spin-echo T2-weighted images for the diagnosis of intracranial meningeal carcinomatosis. Contrast-enhanced FLAIR images can sometimes surpass contrast-enhanced T1-weighted images in their quality.
Publication Year: 2001
Publication Date: 2001-06-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref', 'pubmed']
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Cited By Count: 82
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