Original investigationDetection of Asymptomatic Cerebral Microbleeds: A Comparative Study at 1.5 and 3.0 T1
Section snippets
Subjects
The Muenster Health Study is a prospective population-based cohort study, designed to study inter-relation of age, cardiovascular risk factors, cognitive status, and brain changes on MRI. Criteria for inclusion were age older than 44 years and written consent to participate. Criteria for exclusion were past stroke, other severe neurologic disorders, and contraindication for MRI examination (i.e., pacemaker, claustrophobia). The ethics committee of our university approved the study, and written
Quantitative Results
At T2* MRI sequence, CMBs were detected in 45 of 550 individuals (8.2%) (mean age, 62.3 ± 7.1 years). The number of CMBs per person ranged from 10 to 1. Twenty-five of these individuals agreed to an additional examination at 1.5 T.
In this group (n = 25), a total of 53 CMBs were detected at 3.0 T, compared to 41 at 1.5 T (77%) (Fig. 3). We found significantly more CMBs at 3.0 T compared to 1.5 T (2.12 vs. 1.64; P < .001). No CMBs were seen at 1.5 T that could not be identified at 3.0 T. The mean
Discussion
We evaluated the sensitivity of GE T2* MRI sequences for susceptibility effects at different field strengths of 1.5 and 3.0 T in healthy volunteers. Magnetic susceptibility effects in brain structures, in CMBs and in hemorrhagic brain lesions, are attributed to ferric iron accumulation. Tissue iron decreases T2-relaxation times through the T2* effect, a local heterogeneity in the magnetic field that dephases proton spin and results in signal loss. GE T2* MRI sequences are much more sensitive to
Conclusion
Evidence of past CMBs may be even found in neurologically normal elderly individuals by MRI in 8%. Recent studies indicate that CMBs may be a marker for increased risk for future intracerebral hemorrhage.
Our results demonstrate that the higher sensitivity of GE sequence to susceptibility effects increases with increasing field strength and also better spatial resolution, resulting in a significantly improved depiction of iron-containing brain structures (CMBs) at 3.0 T. Therefore, even minor
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This work was supported by the German Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) through the German Atrial Fibrillation Competence NETwork (AFNET, Gi020407, project B8).