Radiology, Vol 149, 189-192, Copyright © 1983 by Radiological Society of North America
Nuclear magnetic resonance evaluation of stroke. A preliminary report
RN Bryan, MR Willcott, NJ Schneiders, JJ Ford and HS Derman
Nine patients who had acute and subacute stroke were examined by nuclear
magnetic resonance (NMR) using a 6-MHz Bruker Instruments proton scanner. A
modified Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill pulse sequence was used for signal
detection. The resultant string of spin-echoes was Fourier transformed into
projections that were subsequently back- projected to a series of spin-echo
images. From these images, spin density and T2 were calculated for each
pixel. The NMR scans revealed stroke in each of the patients, while CT
demonstrated only eight of the lesions. T2 was prolonged in all of the
ischemic regions and is the most sensitive NMR parameter in detecting
stroke. These preliminary results suggest that NMR scanning of patients who
have acute stroke may be clinically useful, and that the T2 component of
the NMR signal is most important.
