gms | German Medical Science

63rd Annual Meeting of the German Society of Neurosurgery (DGNC)
Joint Meeting with the Japanese Neurosurgical Society (JNS)

German Society of Neurosurgery (DGNC)

13 - 16 June 2012, Leipzig

Depiction of cerebral arteriovenous malformations with susceptibility weighted imaging at 7 Tesla shows unexpected vessel contrasts

Meeting Abstract

  • K.H. Wrede - Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Universitätsklinik Essen; Erwin L. Hahn Institut für Magnetresonanz, Essen
  • I.E. Sandalcioglu - Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Universitätsklinik Essen
  • P. Damman - Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Universitätsklinik Essen
  • U. Sure - Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Universitätsklinik Essen
  • M.U. Schlamann - Institut für Diagnostische und Interventionelle Radiologie und Neuroradiologie, Universitätsklinik Essen
  • M. Barth - Erwin L. Hahn Institut für Magnetresonanz, Essen; Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Nijmegen, Netherlands

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. Japanische Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. 63. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (DGNC), Joint Meeting mit der Japanischen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (JNS). Leipzig, 13.-16.06.2012. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2012. DocP 055

doi: 10.3205/12dgnc442, urn:nbn:de:0183-12dgnc4425

Published: June 4, 2012

© 2012 Wrede et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.


Outline

Text

Objective: Unexpected and previously undescribed vessel contrast is illustrated in susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI) of cerebral arteriovenous malformations (AVM) and arteriovenous fistulas (AVF) at 7 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging.

Methods: Six neurosurgical patients (average age 38.7 years; range 21–58 years) suffering from cerebral AVM (male n=2; female n=3) and AVF (male n=1) were scanned at 7 Tesla using SWI and time-of-flight (TOF) magnetic resonance angiography (MRA).

Results: All subjects tolerated the examination well and could be successfully examined at 7 Tesla MRI within a total acquisition time of less than 45 minutes per scan. Mean signal intensity of feeding vessels was 1.71%, 10.86%, 11.43%, 5.64%, 7.45%, and 4.37% (mean ± SD = 6.9% ± 3.8%) of draining vessel intensity for Subjects 1–6, respectively.

Conclusions: Vessel contrasts in SWI sequences depicted in cerebral AVM and AVF at 7 Tesla MRI were unexpectedly inverted, with the draining vessels being brighter than the arterial feeders. These contrasts can be explained by SWI sequence properties as well as blood oxygenation and flow. For reliable clinical use of SWI, complementary information such as TOF MRA can help to reduce false vessel identification.