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. 2009 Oct;46(4):365-9.
doi: 10.3340/jkns.2009.46.4.365. Epub 2009 Oct 31.

Detection of traumatic cerebral microbleeds by susceptibility-weighted image of MRI

Jong-Hwa Park  1 , Seung-Won Park, Suk-Hyung Kang, Taek-Kyun Nam, Byung-Kook Min, Sung-Nam Hwang
Affiliations

Detection of traumatic cerebral microbleeds by susceptibility-weighted image of MRI

Jong-Hwa Park et al. J Korean Neurosurg Soc. 2009 Oct.

Abstract

Objective: Susceptibility-weighted image (SWI) is a sensitive magnetic resonance image (MRI) technique to detect cerebral microbleeds (MBLs), which would not be detected by conventional MRI. We performed SWI to detect MBLs and investigated its usefulness in the evaluation of mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) patients.

Methods: From December 2006 to June 2007, twenty-one MTBI patients without any parenchymal hemorrhage on conventional MRI were selected. Forty-two patients without trauma were selected for control group. According to the presence of MBLs, we divided the MTBI group into MBLs positive [SWI (+)] and negative [SWI (-)] group. Regional distribution of MBLs and clinical factors were compared between groups.

Results: Fifty-one MBLs appeared in 16 patients of SWI (+) group and 16 MBLs in 10 patients of control group [control (+)], respectively. In SWI (+) group, MBLs were located more frequently in white matters than in deep nucleus different from the control (+) group (p < 0.05). Nine patients (56.3%) of SWI (+) group had various neurological deficits (disorientation in 4, visual field defect in 2, hearing difficulty in 2 and Parkinson syndrome in 1). Initial Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS)/mean Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS) were 13.9 +/- 1.5 / 4.7 +/- 0.8 and 15.0 +/- 0.0 / 5.0 +/- 0.0 in SWI (+) and SWI (-) groups, respectively (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: Traumatic cerebral MBLs showed characteristic regional distribution, and seemed to have an importance on the initial neurological status and the prognosis. SWI is useful for detection of traumatic cerebral MBLs, and can provide etiologic evidences for some post-traumatic neurologic deficits which were unexplainable with conventional MRI.

Keywords: Microbleeds; Susceptibility-weighted image; Traumatic brain injury.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Brain MRI of a 50-year-old man (patient number 7) who complained of left side hearing difficulty after head trauma by traffic accident. (A), (B) and (C) demonstrating no visible hemorrhagic spot at the level of lower pons on T1-weighted magnetic resonance image (MRI) (A), T2-weighted MRI (B), T2-weighted gradient recalled echo MRI (C) , respectively. (D) susceptibility-weighted image presenting a hemorrhagic lesion at the same level of pons containing the lateral lemniscus fibers. This pontine hemorrhage seems to be related with left side hearing difficulty in this patient. (E) Pure tone audiometry shows abnormal finding on the left side. (F) In the box, V wave is detected in 90 dB. Result of auditory brainstem response shows profound hearing loss owing to brainstem lesion.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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