RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Effectiveness of 3D T2-Weighted FLAIR FSE Sequences with Fat Suppression for Detection of Brain MR Imaging Signal Changes in Children
JF American Journal of Neuroradiology
JO Am. J. Neuroradiol.
FD American Society of Neuroradiology
SP 2376
OP 2381
DO 10.3174/ajnr.A4915
VO 37
IS 12
A1 Mascalchi, M.
A1 Bianchi, A.
A1 Basile, M.
A1 Gulino, P.
A1 Trifan, M.R.
A1 Difeo, D.
A1 Bartolini, E.
A1 Defilippi, C.
A1 Diciotti, S.
YR 2016
UL http://www.ajnr.org/content/37/12/2376.abstract
AB BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: T2-weighted FLAIR can be combined with 3D-FSE sequences with isotropic voxels, yielding higher signal-to-noise ratio than 2D-FLAIR. Our aim was to explore whether a T2-weighted FLAIR–volume isotropic turbo spin-echo acquisition sequence (FLAIR-VISTA) with fat suppression shows areas of abnormal brain T2 hyperintensities with better conspicuity in children than a single 2D-FLAIR sequence.MATERIALS AND METHODS: One week after a joint training session with 20 3T MR imaging examinations (8 under sedation), 3 radiologists independently evaluated the presence and conspicuity of abnormal areas of T2 hyperintensities of the brain in FLAIR-VISTA with fat suppression (sagittal source and axial and coronal reformatted images) and in axial 2D-FLAIR without fat suppression in a test set of 100 3T MR imaging examinations (34 under sedation) of patients 2–18 years of age performed for several clinical indications. Their agreement was measured with weighted κ statistics.RESULTS: Agreement was “substantial” (mean, 0.61 for 3 observers; range, 0.49–0.69 for observer pairs) for the presence of abnormal T2 hyperintensities and “fair” (mean, 0.29; range, 0.23–0.38) for the comparative evaluation of lesion conspicuity. In 21 of 23 examinations in which the 3 radiologists agreed on the presence of abnormal T2 hyperintensities, FLAIR-VISTA with fat suppression images were judged to show hyperintensities with better conspicuity than 2D-FLAIR. In 2 cases, conspicuity was equal, and in no case was conspicuity better in 2D-FLAIR.CONCLUSIONS: FLAIR-VISTA with fat suppression can replace the 2D-FLAIR sequence in brain MR imaging protocols for children.VISTAvolume isotropic turbo spin-echo acquisition