Abstract
The Brain section of this book is the largest and covers a combination of normal variants, normal anatomy, and artifacts that can mimic disease. Although there is an attempt to organize such normal variations by region or anatomic structure, such a classification is inherently problematic because some normal variants can be in multiple locations (e.g., choroid plexus or dilated perivascular spaces), while some commonly encountered artifacts can occur anywhere in the brain (e.g., flow voids). Thus, this section of the book is generally organized starting from inferiorly at the skull base to more superiorly, while normal variants that can occur anywhere in the brain are generally placed in the middle. Also, artifacts or magnetic resonance related sequence phenomena that may simulate disease are placed toward the end of this section.
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Keywords
The Brain section of this book is the largest and covers a combination of normal variants, normal anatomy, and artifacts that can mimic disease. Although there is an attempt to organize such normal variations by region or anatomic structure, such a classification is inherently problematic because some normal variants can be in multiple locations (e.g., choroid plexus or dilated perivascular spaces), while some commonly encountered artifacts can occur anywhere in the brain (e.g., flow voids). Thus, this section of the book is generally organized starting from inferiorly at the skull base to more superiorly, while normal variants that can occur anywhere in the brain are generally placed in the middle. Also, artifacts or magnetic resonance related sequence phenomena that may simulate disease are placed toward the end of this section.
Some basic terminology and abbreviations regarding standard sequences is necessary, since magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) manufacturers unfortunately have not adopted one standard for sequences outside of the routine ones such as T1-weighted images, T2-weighted images, fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR), and diffusion-weighted images. Thus, standard terminology used throughout this section and the remainder of the book is described below.
1 Terminology
- 1.5 T and 3 T:
-
1.5 Tesla and 3.0 Tesla MRI magnet field strengths
- 3D:
-
Three dimensional
- BFFE:
-
Balance FFE (similar to CISS)
- CECT:
-
Contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT)
- CISS:
-
Constructive interference in steady state, similar to T2WI, emphasizes cerebrospinal fluid hyperintensity
- DWI:
-
Diffusion-weighted image
- FFE:
-
Fast field echo (either T1- or T2-weighted)
- FLAIR:
-
Fluid-attenuated inversion recovery imaging
- GE:
-
Gradient echo
- GE T2*WI:
-
Gradient echo T2*-weighted imaging
- IR:
-
Inversion recovery imaging
- T1IR:
-
T1-weighted IR imaging
- T2IR:
-
T2-weighted IR imaging
- MiniP:
-
Minimum intensity projection
- MIP:
-
Maximum intensity projection
- MPR:
-
Multiplanar reformat
- MRA:
-
MR angiography
- TOF MRA:
-
Time-of-flight MRA
- NECT:
-
Non-enhanced CT
- SWI:
-
Susceptibility-weighted imaging
- T1WI:
-
T1-weighted imaging
- T2WI:
-
T2-weighted imaging
- T2*WI:
-
GE T2*WI
- US:
-
Ultrasound
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McKinney, A.M. (2017). Brain: Introduction. In: Atlas of Normal Imaging Variations of the Brain, Skull, and Craniocervical Vasculature . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39790-0_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39790-0_1
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