Studies on new MR venography in cerebral areas

Three-dimensional time of flight (3D TOF) venography images that had been used in magnetic resonance (MR) venography were compared with venography images in which the three-dimensional spoiled gradient-recalled (3D SPGR) sequence had been applied to evaluate the utility of the new MR venography images. From September 2010 to May 2011, venography images with 3D TOF venography or 3D SPGR sequence applied were obtained in 30 healthy individuals without a prior disease history and without brain diseases using 3.0 T MR imaging equipment. The acquired images were analysed qualitatively. On the sagittal images, the level of anatomical description of the internal cerebral vein (IVC), basal vein (BV), vein of Galen (VG), superior cerebral veins and sinus confluence (SC) was evaluated. On the coronal images, the level of anatomical description of the superior sagittal sinus (SSS), inferior sagittal sinus (ISS), sagittal sinus (SS) and transverse sinus (TS) was evaluated. The results show that the anatomical descriptions of the IVC, BV and SCV were comparable on the sagittal images, whereas the anatomical description of the VG was superior on the 3D SPGR venography images. On the coronal images, the anatomical descriptions of the SSS, ISS, SS and TS were comparable.