Evaluation of diffusion weighted imaging diagnosis of acute cerebral infarction

Objective To evaluate the value of MRI diffusion weighted imaging and apparent diffusion coefficient(ADC) mapping in the diagnosis of acute cerebral infarction.Methods MRI findings of 41 cases of acute cerebral infarction were analyzed retrospectively.Among them,4 cases were superacute stage(6h),37cases were acute stage(72h).All the cases were scanned with T1WI、T2WI、Dark-fluid and DWI.Results The manifestations of lesions,boundary and extent on DWI were superior to those of conventional T1WI、T2WI and Dark-fluid image;Forty-one patients with clinically-diagnosed acute cerebral infarction all showed abnormal high signal on DWI,and showed low signal on ADC mapping.Conclusion DWI combined with ADC mapping is of high accuracy and sensitivity for diagnosing acute cerebral infarction and detecting early infarction lesions which are difficult to be displayed on conventional T1WI、T2WI and Dark-fluid image.DWI and T2WI combined with ADC mapping can identify different stages of cerebral infraction.