Comprehensive Imaging Diagnosis in the Cerebral Dural Venous Sinus Thrombosis

Objective To evaluate the value of MRI,MRV and CT in the diagnosis of the dural venous sinus thrombosis. Methods Twenty patients with dural venous thrombosis were examined with spin echo MR imaging and MR venography (fifteen patients of them had been examined with CT). The abnormal signal of dural sinus,cerebral edema,cerebral parenchyma abnormal lesion and mastoid process inflammation was observed. Results In the fifteen patients of CT scan,cerebral parenchyma abnormal density lesion in 7 patients,enlarged and high density superior sagittal sinus in 1 case,superior sagittal sinus thrombosis in 11 cases,superior sagittal sinus with transverse sinus,straight sinus or sigmoid sinus thrombosis in 7 cases,left transverse with sigmoid sinus thrombosis in 1 case,and right sigmoid sinus thrombosis in 1 case were found respectively.Spin echo sequence show abnormal signal of intracerebral in eight patients,high signal in the superior sagitta sinus,transverse sinus and sigmoid sinus were showed in fourteen patients. Conclusion MR venography is the most valuable method in the diagnosis and following up of the dural venous sinus thrombosis,a high signal in the dural sinus can clue to this disease.In showing the edema and homorrhage,T1WI is better than T2WI. But in showing the mastoid process inflammation,T2WI is the best. So MRI plus MRA is superior to CT or DSA.