Value of multiple sequences at 3.0 T magnetic resonance imaging for diagnosis of cerebral microbleeds

Objective To evaluate the value of susceptibility weighted imaging(SWI) and other sequences (T_1WI,T_2WI and DWI) for the diagnosis of cerebral microbleeds(CMBs) at 3.OT MR. Methods Twenty-one patients with cerebrovascular diseases were scanned with different MRI sequences which included SWI,T_1 WI,T_2WI and DWI.Utilizing results of SWI as gold standard,the sensitivity for detection of CMBs was compared.Results CMBs in each sequence appeared as round or oval hypointensities.A total of 261(12.4 ± 9.4 per patient) CMBs were detected with SWI,while 96(4.6 ± 4.0) with DWI,55(2.6 ± 2.8) with T_1WI and 66(3.1 ± 3.1) with T_2WI. When SWI was considered as the gold standard,the detection sensitivity of the other three sequences were 36.8% ,21.1% and 25.3%.There was statistically significant difference in the number of CMBs detected by different sequences (P 0.01).The CMBs most frequently detected by SWI were in cortex-subcortical region,followed by the basal ganglia,thalamus,brain stem and cerebellum area.Conclusions SWI is the ideal method for diagnosis of CMBs while conventional sequence is helpful to detection of CMBs.