Neuroradiology
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Comparative Study
Comparison of MRI pulse sequences for investigation of lesions of the cervical spinal cord.
Small spinal cord lesions, even if clinically significant, can be due to the low sensitivity of some pulse sequences. We compared T2-weighted fast (FSE), and conventional (CSE) spin-echo and short-tau inversion-recovery (STIR)-FSE overlooked on MRI sequences to evaluate their sensitivity to and specificity for lesions of different types. We compared the three sequences in MRI of 57 patients with cervical spinal symptoms. ⋯ In two patients, STIR-FSE gave better demarcation of lesions and in one a questionable additional lesions. Group 4, 4 patients (7%) with miscellaneous final diagnoses. STIR-FSE had high sensitivity to demyelinating lesions, can be considered quite specific and should be included in spinal MRI for assessment of suspected demyelinating disease.