The Value of MR Diffusion-Weighted Imaging in Diagnosing Acute Cerebral Infarction

Objective To evaluate diffusion-weighted imaging(DWI) in the diagnosis of acute cerebral infarction.Methods DWI features in 22 patients with cerebral infarctions(2 superacute, 12 acute, 8 subacute) were compared with FSE T2WI and FLAIR.Results Cerebral infarction all showed hyper-intensity on DWI,and showed hetero-intensity in case of hemorrhage.Two superacute patients showed nothing related on T2WI/FLAIR. In acute cases , except 2 patents showed hyper-intensity, all showed lower-high intensity or equal intensity.By comprehensive contrasts on the ratios of lesions and the counterparts based on three different means, DWI is prior to T2WI and FLAIR (ANOVA P FLAIR=0.001,P T2WI=0.038).9 patients who appeared as multi-lesions by T2WI just showed one high lesion by DWI, which related to the acute symptom strongly.Conclusion Due to its highest sensitivity for acute cerebral infarction, DWI is helpful in differentiating acute lesion from chronic infarction, and in the diagnosis of hemorrhagic infarctions as well.