Familial form of cerebral cavernous malformations: evaluation of gradient-spin-echo (GRASE) imaging in lesion detection and characterization at 1.5 T

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the turbo gradient-spin-echo sequ ence (GRASE) in the MR assessment of the familial form of cerebral cavernou s malformations (CCM). Twenty-one patients (15 male, six female) aged from 21 to 68 years (mean = 42.2 years) were prospectively examined with cerebra l MR imaging, including T2-weighted turbo gradient-spin-echo (TGSE), turbo spin-echo (TSE) and gradient-echo (GRE) sequences. All sequences were perfo rmed in the same plane, the same matrix and the same field of view and were analyzed for signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), s usceptibility effects, number of CCM, size of CCM and signal of CCM. It was found that SNR and CNR in the TGSE sequence were significantly inferior to those in both TSE and GRE sequences. TGSE and TSE sequences were significa ntly less prone to susceptibility effects than the GRE sequence. The sensit ivity of TGSE and TSE sequences in detecting CCM was significantly lower th an that of the GRE sequence. TGSE and TSE sequences provided comparable inf ormation about CCM size and signal. It was concluded that GRASE imaging was less sensitive than the GRE sequence in the detection of CCM and provided information similar to that yielded by the TSE sequence in the characteriza tion of lesions, but with a higher number of artifacts. GRASE imaging canno t therefore replace TSE or GRE sequences in the MR evaluation of the famili al form of CCM.