Screening for cerebellopontine angle tumours: Conventional MRI vs T2 fast spin echo MRI

Background: Unilateral audiovestibular symptoms are commonly seen in clinic al practice and are rarely caused by retrocochlear pathology. However, clin icians are often required to rule out potentially serious causes of these u nilateral symptoms. Gadolinium enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (GdMRI) is the most accurate test for detecting small cerebellopontine angle lesion s and also screens the adjacent CNS structures, Its main disadvantage is th e cost of the procedure. Methods: We studied 100 consecutive patients with both GdMRI and a newer MRI screening study utilizing unenhanced T2-weighted fast spin echo (fse) MRT, Acquired images were randomly assessed by a pane l of three neuro-radiologists. Results: We found that the screening (fse) M RI was as sensitive and specific when detecting cerebellopontine angle tumo rs. Conclusions: We conclude that T2-weighted fse MRI is a safe and cost-ef fective alternative to GdMRI and offers better diagnostic utility when comp ared to auditory brain stem response (ABR) and CT scans.