FRIDAY, Sept. 12 (HealthDay News) -- MRI at 3 T was associated with better rates of lesion detection and accurate assessment of lesions than 1.5-T MRI in evaluating epilepsy, according to research published in the September issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology.
Pramit M. Phal, of Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, and colleagues compared findings from 25 patients -- 19 of whom had focal epilepsy -- who underwent imaging with both 1.5-T and 3-T MRI. Four neuroradiologists reviewed the images.
MRI at 3 T performed better in terms of distortion and artifact, lesion conspicuity, gray-white matter differentiation and motion. The researchers report that 3-T MRI was also 2.57 times more likely to identify a focal epileptogenic lesion and 2.66 times more likely to accurately characterize a lesion than 1.5-T MRI.
"MRI at 3 T
yields better contrast resolution of the gray-white matter junction, a finding particularly relevant for detection of subtle focal dysplasia of the cortex," the authors write. "Compared with 1.5-T MR images, whole-brain 3-T MR images are of better quality, do not require surface coils or specific knowledge of lesion location, and are not limited by technical artifacts. Imaging at 3 T should be strongly considered in the evaluation of patients with focal epilepsy and previously equivocal or normal findings on 1.5-T MRI."
Abstract
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