ACUTE SUBARACHNOID HEMORRHAGE - DETECTION WITH MAGNETIC-RESONANCE-IMAGING

The purpose of this study was the evaluation of fluid attenuated turbo inversion recovery (FLAT TIRE) MR pulse sequence for detecting acute subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). Seven patients with SAH were studied wi thin 6 days of ictus. Six of them underwent both CT and MRI and one MR I only. Pulse sequences included T-1 spin echo (SE), PD and T-2 turbo spin echo (TSE) and FLAT TIRE (TR/TI/TE = 6500/1800/140-180). All stud ies were performed on a 0.5 T system (Gyroscan T5, Philips Medical Sys tems). Simulated acute SAH was also studied with MRI. The FLAT TIRE se quence was better than the SE and TSE in all seven cases and better th an CT in two cases. In two cases MRI was equivalent to CT, and in anot her two MRI underestimated the extent of SAH. The simulated acute SAH could be detected easily with the FLAT TIRE sequence, with difficulty on the T-1 weighted images and not at all on the PD/T-2 weighted image s. The specific FLAT TIRE sequence used seems promising for the detect ion of acute SAH.