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Published on: September 19, 2019
Physiological Laterality of Superficial Cerebral Veins on Susceptibility-Weighted Imaging
Satoshi Matsushima1, Tetsuya Shimizu, Taku Gomi
1From the Department of Radiology, The Jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
Objective:
The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether laterality of the superficial cerebral veins can be seen on susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) in patients with no intracranial lesions that affect venous visualization.
Methods:
We retrospectively evaluated 386 patients who underwent brain magnetic resonance imaging including SWI in our institute. Patients with a lesion with the potential to affect venous visualization on SWI were excluded. Two neuroradiologists visually evaluated the findings and scored the visualization of the superficial cerebral veins.
Results:
Of the 386 patients, 315 (81.6%) showed no obvious laterality on venous visualization, 64 (16.6%) showed left-side dominant laterality, and 7 (1.8%) showed right-side dominant laterality.
Conclusions:
Left-side dominant physiological laterality exists in the visualization of the superficial cerebral veins on SWI. Therefore, when recognizing left-side dominant laterality of the superficial cerebral veins on SWI, the radiologist must also consider the possibility of physiological laterality.
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