Radiology, Vol 195, 41-46, Copyright © 1995 by Radiological Society of North America

ARTICLES

Central nervous system tumor, infection, and infarction: detection with gadolinium-enhanced magnetization transfer MR imaging

RC Mehta, GB Pike, SP Haros and DR Enzmann
Department of Radiology, Stanford University Medical Center, CA 94305- 5105.

PURPOSE: To quantitatively measure the degree of contrast enhancement of central nervous system (CNS) tumor, infection, and infarction by means of magnetization transfer (MT) magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. MATERIALS AND METHODS: T1-weighted MR images obtained before and after administration of contrast material with and without MT in 14 patients with CNS tumors were evaluated by means of a contrast-to-noise ratio (C/N). Another 72 patients with a variety of lesions underwent contrast material-enhanced T1-weighted MR imaging prospectively with and without MT; C/N was also evaluated. RESULTS: All lesions had a higher C/N on T1- weighted postcontrast MT images than on conventional images. C/N was 65 +/- 5 (mean +/- standard error) for MT and 42 +/- 4 for conventional images. C/N improved by a factor of 1.6-2.1 in the three disease categories. In intracranial tumors, the MT technique itself did not contribute significantly (P < .001) to the increase in C/N in the absence of gadopentetate dimeglumine. In fact, the C/N was lower for nonenhanced T1-weighted MT images. CONCLUSION: Concurrent use of gadopentetate dimeglumine and MT results in a statistically significant (P < .001) increase in C/N in CNS tumor, infection, and infarction.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				P Kamra, R Azad, K N Prasad, S Jha, S Pradhan, and R K Gupta Infectious meningitis: prospective evaluation with magnetization transfer MRI Br. J. Radiol., May 1, 2004; 77(917): 387 - 394. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				T. Sugahara, Y. Korogi, Y. Ge, Y. Shigematsu, L. Liang, K. Yoshizumi, M. Kitajima, and M. Takahashi Contrast Enhancement of Intracranial Lesions: Conventional T1-Weighted Spin-Echo versus Fast Spin-Echo MR Imaging Techniques AJNR Am. J. Neuroradiol., September 1, 1999; 20(8): 1554 - 1559. [Abstract] [Full Text]

				G. Pike, de Stefano, Narayanan, G. Francis, J. Antel, and D. Arnold Combined Magnetization Transfer and Proton Spectroscopic Imaging in the Assessment of Pathologic Brain Lesions in Multiple AJNR Am. J. Neuroradiol., May 1, 1999; 20(5): 829 - 837. [Abstract] [Full Text]

				R. Gupta, M. Kathuria, and Pradhan Magnetization Transfer MR Imaging in CNS AJNR Am. J. Neuroradiol., May 1, 1999; 20(5): 867 - 875. [Abstract] [Full Text]

				V. P. Mathews, K. S. Caldemeyer, M. J. Lowe, S. L. Greenspan, D. M. Weber, and J. L. Ulmer Brain: Gadolinium-enhanced Fast Fluid-attenuated Inversion-Recovery MR Imaging Radiology, April 1, 1999; 211(1): 257 - 263. [Abstract] [Full Text]