gms | German Medical Science

57th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Neurosurgery
Joint Meeting with the Japanese Neurosurgical Society

German Society of Neurosurgery (DGNC)

11 - 14 May, Essen

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Dynamic real-time MRI examination of the cervical spine using the Neuro-Swing System

Dynamische real-time MRT-Untersuchung der Halswirbelsäule mit den NeuroSwing-System

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  • corresponding author M. Schlamann - Institut für Diagnostische und Interventionelle Radiologie und Neuroradiologie, Universitätsklinikum Essen
  • L. Reischke - Institut für Diagnostische und Interventionelle Radiologie und Neuroradiologie, Universitätsklinikum Essen
  • S. Maderwald - Institut für Diagnostische und Interventionelle Radiologie und Neuroradiologie, Universitätsklinikum Essen
  • P.D. Klassen - Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Universitätsklinikum Essen
  • M. Forsting - Institut für Diagnostische und Interventionelle Radiologie und Neuroradiologie, Universitätsklinikum Essen
  • I. Wanke - Institut für Diagnostische und Interventionelle Radiologie und Neuroradiologie, Universitätsklinikum Essen

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. Japanische Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. 57. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie e.V. (DGNC), Joint Meeting mit der Japanischen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. Essen, 11.-14.05.2006. Düsseldorf, Köln: German Medical Science; 2006. DocP 11.171

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/dgnc2006/06dgnc388.shtml

Published: May 8, 2006

© 2006 Schlamann 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

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Objective: Dynamic MRI examinations of the cervical spine could not be carried out up to now. Routinely performed static examination might be insufficient in the diagnosis of a stenotic problem of the spinal canal especially when symptoms only occur in a specific position. Latest developments enable real-time dynamic examinations in neutral position as well as ante- and retroflexion using a dynamic hardware-system designed for the cervical spine.

We report our experience using the dynamic Neuro-Swing™ System (Hightech-Electronic/Siemens Medical Solutions, Erlangen, Germany).

Methods: 25 patients with symptoms of cervical spinal stenosis were included into this study. All exams were performed using a 1.5 Tesla scanner (SIEMENS Magnetom Sonata, Siemens Medical Erlangen, Germany). The patients were measured in neutral position, in dynamic anteflexion and retroflexion. Interactively patients set their individual limits of movement during the scan. The dynamic scans were performed within 51 seconds using a real-time TrueFisp (SSFP) sequence with a slice thickness of 4 mm and a temporal resolution of 2.5 images per second.

Results: The averaged degrees in anteflexion and retroflexion were 42.6 and 44.6 respectively. A significant increase of the spinal stenosis during movement was found in five patients.

Conclusions: Real-time dynamic examination of the cervical spine might be a useful completion to the conventional static examination and allows a more precise allocation of the symptoms in some cases.