Application of Susceptibility Weighted Imaging in Brain Disease

Objective To investigate the value of susceptibility weighted imaging(SWI) in the diagnosis of brain vascular malformation, bleeding and tumors.Methods 63 cases of brain vascular malformation(20 cases),bleeding(21 cases) and tumors(22 cases) were enrolled in this study.All of them underwent T1WI,T2WI,SWI scans.17 cases of tumors injected Gd-DTPA and underwent T1WI scan.Cases of arteriovenous malformation and moya-moya disease also took MR angiography.Results In all cases of vascular malformation,SWI clearly showed the lesions boundary and malformed veins.In 21 cases of chronic bleedings,SWI character was low signal intensity,and range of the lesions in SWI was larger than conventional MR sequence.In 22 cases of brain tumors,SWI showed hypointensity in 18 cases,and medial signal intensity in 4 cases.Edema around tumors was high signal intensity at SWI.In 17 cases SWI clearly showed the tumors boundary and in 5 cases were not.In 16 cases of them,the veins and blood products in tumors were displayed clearly.Conclusion SWI can clearly show brain vascular malformation,micro-bleeding,and is helpful to characterize tumors.SWI combined with conventional MR sequences can be used to display the lesions features better.