BLINDED COMPARISON OF CRANIAL CT AND MR IN CLOSED-HEAD INJURY EVALUATION

PURPOSE: To compare CT and MR in the evaluation of acute head injury. METHODS: One hundred seven consecutive patients who were referred to t he emergency department and underwent both MR and CT cranial examinati ons within 48 hours were retrospectively reviewed. The films were inte rpreted by two neuroradiologists blinded to all patient information. R ESULTS: The sensitivity of MR was significantly higher than that of CT for the detection of contusion, shearing injury, subdural and epidura l hematoma, and sinus involvement. The sensitivity of CT was significa ntly higher than that of MR for the evaluation of fracture. The sensit ivities of MR and CT were statistically equivalent for the detection o f superficial soft-tissue injury. The overall sensitivity of MR for th e detection of abnormalities in acute head trauma was 96.4%, and for C T was 63.4%. CONCLUSIONS: CT and MR are complementary studies in the e valuation of acute head trauma. MR is necessary to define or exclude c ontusions, deep shearing injury, and extraaxial fluid collections in a cute head trauma.