The results of NMR imaging of the brain using superconductive magnets as compared to those obtained by cranial computed tomography

Computed tomography and NMR imaging were carried out at short intervals in a group of patients known to suffer from cerebral diseases like tumours, multiple sclerosis, disseminated encephalomyelitis, ischemia, hemorrhages and hydrocephalus and subsequently compared to each other in order to define the general circumstances and disorders, in which NMR imaging may serve as the sole method of diagnosis. Furthermore the levels of performance of CT and NMR were to be evaluated on a comparative basis in patients treated at this centre. NMR, by contrast with CT, was rather sensitive a method in multiple sclerosis (84%), ischemia (83%) and former hemorrhages (100%). Those deviations between NMR and CT were less evident in cerebral tumours, the sensitivity values determined here being 98% and 89%, respectively. Nevertheless, NMR still appeared to be superior by far, as it permitted the spread of disease and individual fine structures to be more precisely evaluated. This applied, above all, to processes in the posterior cranial fossa and at the base of skull. Differences in performance were particularly drastic in multiple sclerosis, which was diagnosed by CT in no more than 18% of cases. (orig./MG)