AJR. American journal of roentgenology
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AJR Am J Roentgenol · Mar 1994
MR imaging of high-grade cerebral gliomas: value of diffusion-weighted echoplanar pulse sequences.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of diffusion-weighted echoplanar MR imaging in the examination of high-grade brain gliomas compared with that of conventional spin-echo (SE) or fast spin-echo (FSE) MR imaging. We hypothesize that diffusion-weighted MR imaging may enable us to differentiate various tumor components on the basis of differences in the diffusion of water. ⋯ Diffusion-weighted echoplanar MR imaging is a useful technique for examining high-grade cerebral gliomas. It enabled us to differentiate various components of the tumor (e.g., enhancing, nonenhancing, cystic, or necrotic) and to distinguish areas of predominantly nonenhancing tumor from areas of predominantly peritumoral edema when the abnormality was located in the white matter aligned in the direction of the diffusion-weighted gradient. Diffusion-weighted echoplanar MR imaging appears to be a powerful tool in the characterization of brain neoplasms.
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AJR Am J Roentgenol · Feb 1994
Comparative StudyEvaluation of patellar tracking in patients with suspected patellar malalignment: cine MR imaging vs arthroscopy.
The purpose of this study was to compare results of motion-triggered cine MR imaging of active extension of the knee with arthroscopic findings in cases of suspected femoropatellar malalignment. ⋯ We conclude that motion-triggered cine MR imaging of active extension of the knee enables the dynamic evaluation of patellar bracing and is therefore suitable for noninvasive analysis of patellar tracking.
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AJR Am J Roentgenol · Feb 1994
Blunt splenic trauma in adults: can CT findings be used to determine the need for surgery?
The role of CT grading of blunt splenic injuries is still controversial. We studied the CT scans of adult patients with proved blunt splenic injuries to determine if the findings accurately reflect the extent of the injury. We were specifically interested in establishing if CT findings can be used to determine whether patients require surgery or can be managed conservatively. ⋯ Our results show that CT findings cannot be used to determine reliably which patients require surgery and which patients can be treated conservatively. Even patients with splenic parenchymal injuries of CT grade III, IV, and V and with CT-based scores of 2.5 or higher can be successfully treated conservatively if the clinical situation is appropriate, whereas delayed splenic rupture can still develop in patients with low CT grades or scores. The choice between operative and nonoperative management of splenic trauma should be mainly based on clinical findings rather than CT findings.
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AJR Am J Roentgenol · Feb 1994
Comparative StudyEvaluation of malignant biliary obstruction: efficacy of fast multiplanar spoiled gradient-recalled MR imaging vs spin-echo MR imaging, CT, and cholangiography.
Although CT and cholangiography have proven value in the detection of biliary obstruction, determining the extent of biliary tumors and imaging small pancreatic or ampullar tumors remain problematic. We hypothesized that the superior contrast resolution of MR, coupled with contrast-enhanced breath-hold imaging, might increase the sensitivity for tumor detection and improve the depiction of the point of obstruction in patients with malignant biliary disease. ⋯ Contrast-enhanced FMPSPGR MR imaging is sensitive for the detection of tumors causing biliary obstruction. For proximal obstruction, it may be particularly effective for detecting and defining tumor extent of hilar cholangiocarcinomas because of their enhancement with gadopentetate dimeglumine. For cases of distal obstruction, this technique showed improved tumor detection and conspicuity compared with T1- and fast spin-echo T2-weighted images, but showed no advantage over CT.
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AJR Am J Roentgenol · Feb 1994
Comparative StudySilicone breast implant rupture: comparison between three-point Dixon and fast spin-echo MR imaging.
This study was designed to compare the three-point Dixon technique with our present MR protocol incorporating T2-weighted fast spin echo and fast spin echo with water suppression to detect ruptured silicone breast implants. ⋯ Silicone implant ruptures were detected more frequently with fast spin-echo MR sequences than with the three-point Dixon technique, although the difference was not significant. The greater spatial resolution used for the fast spin-echo sequence partially accounts for the difference in detection of implant ruptures in this study.