A new MRI tag-based method to non-invasively visualize cerebrospinal fluid flow

Authors

Matthew Borzage, Fetal and Neonatal Institute, Division of Neonatology, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, 4650 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA, 90027, USA. borzage@usc.edu.
Skorn Ponrartana, Department of Radiology, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Benita Tamrazi, Department of Radiology, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Wende Gibbs, Department of Radiology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Marvin D. Nelson, Department of Radiology, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
J Gordon McComb, Division of Neurosurgery, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Stefan Blüml, Department of Radiology, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

Document Type

Article

Abstract

PURPOSE: Abnormal cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) dynamics can produce a number of significant clinical problems to include hydrocephalus, loculated areas within the ventricles or subarachnoid spaces as well as impairment of normal CSF movement between the cranial and spinal compartments that can result in a cerebellar ectopia and hydrosyringomyelia. Thus, assessing the patency of fluid flow between adjacent CSF compartments non-invasively by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has definite clinical value. Our objective was to demonstrate that a novel tag-based CSF imaging methodology offers improved contrast when compared with a commercially available application. METHODS: In a prospective study, ten normal healthy adult subjects were examined on 3T magnets with time-spatial labeling inversion pulse (Time-SLIP) and a new tag-based flow technique-time static tagging and mono-contrast preservation (Time-STAMP). The image contrast was calculated for dark-untagged CSF and bright-flowing CSF. We tested the results with the D'Agostino and Pearson normality test and Friedman's test with Dunn's multiple comparison correction for significance. Separately 96 pediatric patients were evaluated using the Time-STAMP method. RESULTS: In healthy adults, contrasts were consistently higher with Time-STAMP than Time-SLIP (p < 0.0001, in all ROI comparisons). The contrast between untagged CSF and flowing tagged CSF improved by 15 to 34%. In both healthy adults and pediatric patients, CSF flow between adjacent fluid compartments was demonstrated. CONCLUSIONS: Time-STAMP provided images with higher contrast than Time-SLIP, without diminishing the ability to visualize qualitative CSF movement and between adjacent fluid compartments.

Medical Subject Headings

Adolescent; Adult; Cerebral Ventricles (chemistry, diagnostic imaging); Cerebrospinal Fluid (chemistry, diagnostic imaging); Child; Child, Preschool; Female; Humans; Hydrocephalus (diagnostic imaging); Infant; Infant, Newborn; Magnetic Resonance Imaging (methods); Male; Middle Aged; Spin Labels; Time Factors; Young Adult

Publication Date

9-1-2018

Publication Title

Child's nervous system : ChNS : official journal of the International Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery

E-ISSN

1433-0350

Volume

34

Issue

9

First Page

1677

Last Page

1682

PubMed ID

29876643

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1007/s00381-018-3845-3

Recommended Citation

Borzage, Matthew; Ponrartana, Skorn; Tamrazi, Benita; Gibbs, Wende; Nelson, Marvin D.; McComb, J Gordon; and Blüml, Stefan, "A new MRI tag-based method to non-invasively visualize cerebrospinal fluid flow" (2018). Neuroradiology. 8.
https://scholar.barrowneuro.org/neuroradiology/8