RESUMO
Objective To evaluate the clinical value of enhanced 3D-SPACE-STIR sequence MR in brachial plexus injury post-ganglionic nerve.Methods Eighteen patients with suspected brachial plexus injury were examined by routine MRI,3D-SPACE-STIR sequence and enhanced scan.The position,morphology,signal intensity of the brachial plexus injury and its relation with the proximal and distal portions of the brachial plexus were evaluated by senior radiologists.The image quality of plain and enhanced 3D-SPACE-STIR was evaluated respectively.Results The CNR of plain scan and enhanced 3D-SPACE-STIR sequence images were 32.31+2.98 and 43.66+2.78 respectively and the difference was statistically significant.Plain and enhanced 3D-SPACE-STIR sequences of supraclavicular nerves display rate were 95.0% and 96.1% respectively without having statistically significant difference.However,the subclavicular segment of the brachial plexus showed the displaying rates of 66.7% and 94.4% and the difference was statistically significant.Moreover, the background suppression effect of enhanced scan was better than that of the plain scan.Conclusion Enhanced 3D-SPACE-STIR sequence can clearly show brachial plexus injury,and its image quality is better than that of the plain scan,which can provide important imaging basis for accurate diagnosis of brachial plexus injury.