Comparison of two MR sequences for the detection of multiple sclerosis lesions in the spinal cord

To compare cardiac-triggered dual-echo spin-echo and magnetization transfer-prepared gradient-echo (MT-GE) MR imaging in the detection of multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions in the spinal cord. The cervical spinal cord in 20 patients with MS and in nine healthy volunteers was examined with spin-echo and...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American journal of neuroradiology : AJNR 1996-09, Vol.17 (8), p.1533-1538
Main Authors: Lycklama a Nijeholt, GJ, Barkhof, F, Castelijns, JA, van Waesberghe, JH, Valk, J, Jongen, PJ, Hommes, OR
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Analysis of Variance
Biological and medical sciences
Comparative Study
Diagnosis, Differential
Female
Humans
Image Enhancement - methods
Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods
Male
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Multiple Sclerosis - diagnosis
Multiple Sclerosis - pathology
Multiple sclerosis and variants. Guillain barré syndrome and other inflammatory polyneuropathies. Leukoencephalitis
Neurology
Random Allocation
Reproducibility of Results
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Single-Blind Method
Spinal Cord - pathology
Spinal Cord Diseases - diagnosis
Spinal Cord Diseases - pathology
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Summary:To compare cardiac-triggered dual-echo spin-echo and magnetization transfer-prepared gradient-echo (MT-GE) MR imaging in the detection of multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions in the spinal cord. The cervical spinal cord in 20 patients with MS and in nine healthy volunteers was examined with spin-echo and MT-GE MR imaging. Sagittal images were scored for number of lesions, certainty about lesions, image quality, and visual hindrance by artifacts in random order by two radiologists separately and in a blinded manner. In one healthy volunteer, a lesion was seen on images obtained with both images. Lesion/cord contrast-to-noise ratio was equal on both the MT-GE and T2-weighted spin-echo images. MT-GE images showed better image quality and fewer artifacts than the spin-echo images did. The readers found approximately the same number of lesions. However, the number of definite lesions was higher for the spin-echo sequence than for the MT-GE sequence. One reader found 45 definite lesions with spin-echo and 34 definite lesions with MT-GE. For the other reader, these numbers were 37 (spin-echo) and 31 (MT-GE). On the spin-echo images, 90% of the patients were considered to have definite lesions; on the MT-GE images, the readers found definite lesions in 65% (reader 1) and in 70% (reader 2) of the patients. Image quality was better with the MT-GE technique than with the spin-echo technique, and lesion/cord contrast-to-noise ratio on the MT-GE images was equal to that of T2-weighted spin-echo images. However, for detecting spinal cord MS lesions in the sagittal plane, the spin-echo images were preferred to the MT-GE images.
ISSN:0195-6108
1936-959X