Evaluation of Brain Stem Anatomy with 3D-FLAIR Imaging at 3T

Mika Kitajima¹, Toshinori Hirai¹, Yoshinori Shigematsu¹, Hiroyuki Uetani¹, Koya Iwashita¹, Kousuke Morita¹, Masuma Akter¹, Yasuyuki Yamashita¹

3D-FLAIR imaging using varying flip angles of RF pulses reduces pulsation- and blood flow artifacts and yields a high SNR and high spatial resolution compared to 2D-FLAIR imaging. To evaluate the brain stem anatomy, we compared 3D-FLAIR images, TSE T2WI, diffusion-tensor color maps in 10 healthy volunteers, and used a brain atlas. On 3D-FLAIR images the detailed structures, i.e. the superior-, middle-, and inferior cerebellar peduncle, the decussation of the superior cerebellar peduncle, the central tegmental tract, the medial lemniscus, and the corticospinal tract were depicted; the white matter tracts were not visible on TSE T2WI.