Journal of medical imaging and radiation oncology
-
J Med Imaging Radiat Oncol · Aug 2009
Comparative StudyT1-weighted fluid-attenuated inversion recovery and T1-weighted fast spin-echo contrast-enhanced imaging: a comparison in 20 patients with brain lesions.
T1-weighted fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) sequence is a relatively new pulse sequence for intracranial MR imaging. This study was performed to compare the image quality of T1-weighted FLAIR with the T1-weighted FSE sequence. Twenty patients with brain lesions underwent T1-weighted fast spin-echo (FSE) and T1-weighted FLAIR during the same imaging session. ⋯ T1-weighted FLAIR imaging provides improved lesion-to-background and grey to WM contrast-to-noise ratios. Superior conspicuity of lesions and overall image contrast is obtained in comparable acquisition times. These indicate an important role for T1-weighted FLAIR in intracranial imaging and highlight its advantage over the more widely practiced T1-weighted FSE sequence.