BRAIN METASTASES - COMPARISON OF GADODIAMIDE INJECTION-ENHANCED MR-IMAGING AT STANDARD AND HIGH-DOSE, CONTRAST-ENHANCED CT AND NON-CONTRAST-ENHANCED MR-IMAGING
P. Akeson et al., BRAIN METASTASES - COMPARISON OF GADODIAMIDE INJECTION-ENHANCED MR-IMAGING AT STANDARD AND HIGH-DOSE, CONTRAST-ENHANCED CT AND NON-CONTRAST-ENHANCED MR-IMAGING, Acta radiologica, 36(3), 1995, pp. 300-306
The aim was to compare the abilities of contrast-enhanced CT, non-cont
rast-enhanced MR imaging and contrast-enhanced MR imaging using standa
rd (0.1 mmol/kg b.w.) and high (0.3 mmol/kg b.w.) doses of Gadodiamide
injection to detect brain metastases (i.e. blood-brain barrier damage
). Sixteen patients with at least 2 metastases found by CT were evalua
ted by MR imaging using non-contrast-enhanced spin-echo, T1-weighted,
T2-weighted sequences, and contrast-enhanced spin-echo T1-weighted seq
uences at 2 dose levels. Gadodiamide injection was first given at the
dose of 0.1 mmol/kg b.w. After imaging, another 0.2 mmol/kg b.w. was g
iven, yielding a cumulative dose of 0.3 mmol/kg b.w. No contrast media
-related adverse events were recorded. The images were evaluated openl
y by one and blindly by 2 investigators and the number of metastases,
size, delineation (open study) and diagnostic certainty (blind study)
of each individual metastasis noted. High-dose MR imaging showed signi
ficantly more and smaller metastases than any other examination, and g
ave a higher diagnostic certainty. All high-dose images were superior
to those with the standard dose MR imaging when compared blindly in pa
irs. We conclude that spin-echo MR imaging with a high dose of Gadodia
mide injection is an efficient way to improve the detection of brain m
etastases, in particular of small ones.