Applications of three newer contrast-enhaced MRI sequences in the diagnosis of intracranial tumors / 中国癌症杂志

ABSTRACT

Purpose:To investigate the values of three newer contrast enhanced MRI sequences including gadolinium-enhanced FLAIR MRI(CE FLAIR), dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE MRI) and perfusion- weighted MRI(PWI) by comparing their advantages and disadvantages respectively in the diagnosis of intracranial tumors. Methods:43 patients with intracranial tumors underwent DCE MRI, CE FLAIR and PWI respectively. The gadolinium-enhanced FLAIR, dynamic enhanced MR and perfusion-weighted MR images were evaluated independently by two radiologists for the number of examinations with one or more enhancing lesions, the number and location of enhancing lesions per examination, the detectability for different lesions in different locations, size and extent of the lesions. Results:Perfusion-weighted MR images showed poor quality and could not give a diagnosis in 5 of 43 cases because of heavy susceptibility artifacts. There were 47 lesions in the 38 cases. However, 41 lesions were found on CE FLAIR MR images and 42 on DCE MRI and 45 on PWI. 3 lesions(2 located in the subcortical area and 1 in paraventricle) were only revealed on the CE FLAIR images. 4 lesions in the basal ganglia area were only found on dynamic enhanced images. 7 lesions in the cerebral hemisphere were only found on perfusion-weighted images. So there were significant differences in revealing lesions of different locations with the three MR modalities(P