Rapid MRI Brain Sequences for Ischaemic Stroke
Siobhan Lee
Purpose
To review the use of rapid MRI sequences targeted at detecting acute ischaemic cerebrovascular accident (CVA) using diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI).
Approach
Data was obtained from 27 patients who received MRI Brain at Calvary Mater Hospital in Newcastle during the study period with the Siemens GOBrain protocol, from PACS and digital medical records.
Results/Discussion
Rapid MRI effectively detected CVA within this cohort, with significantly reduced scan durations and reduced burden of further imaging for patients without CVA. Short time intervals between scan requests and completion represented efficiency in facilitating urgent scans, enabled by short scan durations. Despite being a useful diagnostic tool, extracranial MRA was underutilised in this cohort. Conversely, no benefit was gained from performing intracranial MRA in any patients without CVA, despite significantly increasing scan duration and burden of reporting. There were also features suggesting that requests for MRI brain in this cohort were suboptimal or not indicated.