Balanced fast field echo in diagnosis of trigeminal neuralgia with blood vessel compression at the cerebellopontine angle

Objective To assess the clinical value of the balanced fast field echo(BFFE) in detection of trigeminal neuralgia with blood vessel compression at the cerebellopontine angle.Methods Conventional magnetic resonance imagings and B-FFE imagings in 50 cases were retrospectively analyzed.Results All trigeminal nerves of the 50 cases exhibited a clear signal on B-FFE imaging and the signal intensities of the blood vessel of the cerebellopontine angle of 45 cases was relatively similar to the trigeminal nerves,which made a sharp contrast with the high signal intensity of the cerebrospinal fluid of the cerebellopontine angle.In 17 of the 42 cases of blood vessel compression of the cerebellopontine angle,the trigeminal nerves exhibited an obvious aversion.Conclusion The balanced fast field echo is a fast and high performance technique for diagnosing trigeminal neuralgia with blood vessel compression of the cerebellopontine angle.