The accuracy of magnetic resonance venography for diagnosis of dural sinus thrombosis.

ABSTRACT

A retrospective study of 24 patients who underwent magnetic resonance venography (MRV) was performed. The MRV was using a 3D-PC technique and thick-slab multiplanar reconstruction. Four patients underwent conventional angiography. There were 4 males and 20 females with an age range of 8-71 years. The MRV was considered as positive for dural sinus thrombosis (DST) in 8 patients and negative in 16 patients. There were 2 false positive in the MRV.The sensitivity of MRV is 100%,specificity 88%,positive predictive value 75% and negative predictive value 100%.We concluded that MRV is a valuable screening method for DST. One pitfall concerning the use of MRV is that a false positive interpretation may occur due to hypoplasia of the transverse sinus which is a normal variant.