VELOCITY AND FLOW QUANTITATION IN THE SUPERIOR SAGITTAL SINUS WITH UNGATED AND CINE (GATED) PHASE-CONTRAST MR-IMAGING

Normal blood flow and velocity in the superior sagittal sinus were mea sured in 30 patients. A fast two-dimensional ungated phase-contrast (P C) pulse sequence was compared with a peripherally gated cine PC techn ique for velocity and flow quantitation. The same imaging parameters w ere used for both methods. Measured values for mean velocity and flow obtained with the two methods were compared by using regression analys is and t testing. For blood flow, the correlation coefficient was.976. For velocity measurements, r was .950. Mean flow was 285 mL/min +/- 1 9 with the ungated PC method and 281 mL/min +/- 19 with the cine PC me thod. The mean velocities measured with the two methods were 12.94 cm/ sec +/- 1.1 and 13.59 cm/sec +/- 1.1, respectively. There was no signi ficant difference (paired t test) between the methods for mean flow or velocity data. This was true even though flow in the superior sagitta l sinus is moderately pulsatile, as shown with the cine PC technique. The ungated PC method provided these data in 13 seconds versus 3.5 min utes for the cine PC method.