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AJNR - American Journal of Neuroradiology

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American Journal of Neuroradiology 20:1554-1559 (9 1999)
© 1999 American Society of Neuroradiology

ARTICLE

Contrast Enhancement of Intracranial Lesions: Conventional T1-Weighted Spin-Echo versus Fast Spin-Echo MR Imaging Techniques

Takeshi Sugahara^a, Yukunori Korogi^a, Yulin Ge^a, Yoshinori Shigematsu^a, Luxia Liang^a, Kazuhiro Yoshizumi^a, Mika Kitajima^a and Mutsumasa Takahashi^a

^a From the Department of Radiology, Kumamoto University School of Medicine, 1-1-1 Honjo, Kumamoto 860-8556, Japan.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The T1-weighted fast spin-echo (T1-FSE) MR imaging sequence is not used routinely, since the speed advantage is not as dramatic as it is in T2-weighted imaging. We evaluated the T1-FSE sequence to determine whether this technique can replace the conventional T1-weighted spin-echo (T1-SE) sequence for routine contrast-enhanced imaging.

METHODS: Sixty-nine patients with intracranial enhancing lesions underwent both T1-SE and T1-FSE sequences in a random order after administration of contrast agent. Acquisition time was 55 seconds for the T1-FSE sequence and 2 minutes 38 seconds for the SE sequence. The conspicuity of enhancing lesions, peritumoral edema, and gray-to-white matter contrast as well as motion and flow artifacts were analyzed. Signal-to-noise ratios of enhancing lesions, gray matter, and white matter as well as contrast-to-noise ratios (CNRs) of enhancing lesions, with gray matter with white matter as the standard, were calculated.

RESULTS: The conspicuity of enhancing lesions was better on T1-FSE sequences than on T1-SE sequences, although the difference in the CNRs of enhancing lesions did not reach significance. Images obtained with the T1-FSE sequence showed less flow and motion artifacts than did those obtained with the T1-SE sequence. The conspicuity of peritumoral edema and gray-to-white matter contrast was lower on the T1-FSE images than on the T1-SE images.

CONCLUSION: The T1-FSE sequence reduces imaging time and has the potential to replace the conventional T1-SE sequence for the evaluation of enhancing lesions in the brain when time is a consideration.