Keywords:
Neuroradiology brain, CNS, MR, Experimental investigations, Cerebrospinal fluid, Dilatation, Haemodynamics / Flow dynamics
Authors:
E. Eracleous1, K. N. Voulgaris1, S. Demetriou1, V. Vasiliou1, M. Karekla1, I. Seimenis2; 1Nicosia/CY, 2Alexandroupolis/GR
DOI:
10.1594/ecr2018/C-1434
Methods and materials
Fifty-two (39 females,
13 males) migraineurs and 16 gender- and age-matched,
asymptomatic,
control subjects were recruited in this study.
Patients with small vessel disease were excluded.
Subjects were scanned in a 3T magnet Philips Achieva (Philips Healthcare,
Best,
the Netherlands) with a comprehensive brain protocol comprising of the following pulse sequences: FLAIR,
T2w/TSE,
SWI and T1w/TSE in the axial plane,
T2w/TSE in the sagittal plane,
and MR venography with 3D phase contrast and 2D phase contrast for CSF flow quantification.
The acquisition parameters for aqueductal flow assessment were TR=11 ms,
TE=8 ms,
voxel size=0.6×0.8×4.00 mm3,
velocity encoding=10 cm/s,
whilst 20 phases were obtained using retrospective peripheral cardiac gating.
The scan was acquired in a section perpendicular to the aqueduct (Fig.
1-3).
Acquired images were evaluated with regard to the number of WMH,
the presence of VRS,
the agenesis/hypoplasia of the CVS,
the ALV and the presence of sinusitis by two experienced radiologists with consensus reading.
Suprasellar cistern area (Fig.
4 & 5) and pituitary gland height (Fig.
6) were also measured and the corresponding average values were registered.
Quantitative flow data were post-processed using proprietary software to obtain the stroke volume (SV).
The aqueduct was manually delineated in all cardiac phase images by a neuroradiologist with seven years of experience who was blinded to clinical data.
Care was taken not to include non-moving tissue elements in the imaging plane to avoid background noise in the MR signal.