Usefulness of low-field FlAIR sequence in MR imaging of intracranial tumors

Plain MR study is often insufficient for visualization of all important details of intracranial tumors, hence there are attempts to use supplementary MR techniques. One of them is FLAIR (fluid attenuated inversion recovery) sequence which previously was available only in high-field MR units, but recently has been introduced also in less expensive low-field units. FLAIR is already widely used in the diagnostics of ischemic and demyelinating lesions, while there are few papers concerning its application in intracranial tumors, none of them regarding low-field MR units.The aim of our study was detailed evaluation of low-field FLAIR in the diagnostics of intracranial tumors. The material consisted of 76 patients with intracranial tumors, who were examined with low-field open MR unit (0.23 Tesla). In all patients, standard T2-weighted and T1-weighted (before and after contrast enhancement) sequences, as well as FLAIR sequence, were performed. The following symptoms were compared in the aforementioned sequences: tumor-edema, edema-brain and tumor-brain borders, visualization of tumour structure, vessels in the tumor area and precise tumor localization. A superiority of FLAIR in assessment of all symptoms has been confirmed, at least in part of the patient group. It concerned particularly the evaluation of brain-edema and edema-brain borders which were better visible with FLAIR than with all other sequences in 29 and 30 patients, respectively. In the assessment of the remaining symptoms (tumor-brain border, tumor structure, visualization of vessels, tumor localization) FLAIR was superior to other sequences in smaller number of patients (13,11,11 and 12, respectively). Totally, in 48 out of 76 patients (63.2%) FLAIR allowed better assessment of at least one of the analyzed symptoms. Low-field MR FLAIR enriches diagnostic information in majority of patients with intracranial tumors, therefore it should be included routinely in the diagnostic algorithm in this group of patients. (author)