engleski

ESNR 2016

Objectives: To asses postcontrast Short Tau Inversion Recovery (STIR)MR images for potential new information in various intracranial diseaseprocesses.Background: STIR suppresses signal from tissues with short T1 values.Thus accumulation of gadolinium-based contrast agent leads to a relativesignal loss compared to precontrast STIR images. To the best of ourknolwedge, intracranial postcontrast STIR imaging has not yet beenevaluated.Methods: Sixty-three patients underwent brain MRI on a 1.5 Teslascanner: 19 with multiple sclerosis (MS), 16 with metastases, 14 withmeningiomas, 12 with gliomas and 2 with abscesses. Axial T1-weighted and STIR images were obtained before and after intrave-nous administration of contrast agent. The enhancing lesions wereanalyzed for the presence and characteristics of relative signal changeon postcontrast STIR images.Results: Enhancing MS lesions revealed a surprising range of appear-ances on postcontrast STIR images, from a definite signal loss to aslight increase in signal intensity, which were in some cases presentwithin the same lesion. Only some of the homogenously enhancingmetastases demonstrated signal loss. Among the homogenously en-hancing meningiomas two different patterns of signal loss wereobserved.Conclusion: Our pilot study demonstrates that postcontrast STIR im-aging offers additional information, not obtained with other se-quences, suggesting various lesion characteristics, primarily in pa-tients with MS, metastases and menigiomas. Further investigation isnecessary to evaluate for the underlying cause and possible clinicalutility of this novel information.

Postcontrast STIR, Intracranial disease processes, Magnetic Resonance Imaging

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