Magnetic resonance imaging in neurologic diseases--comparison with computed tomography

Magnetic resonance (MR) and computed tomography (CT) imagings were compared in 121 patients with various neurologic diseases. MR was performed with either 0.15 Tesla resistive or 2.0 Tesla superconducting systems developed by Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), using multi-slice spin echo technique with a variety of pulse sequences reflecting proton density, T1 and T2 relaxation times. MR was more advantageous in the detection of the lesions, accurate depiction of the lesion extents, and/or demonstration of anatomic details in sagittal or coronal plane in 36 of the 121 patients. These included white matter diseases, cervical cord tumors, syringomyelia, brain stem tumors, foramen magnum tumor, acute cerebellar infarction, Chiari malformation, isodense subacute subdural hematomas, cavernous hemangioma, A-V malformation with hemorrhage and some unknown pathologies. Even though 2.0T superconducting system showed greater capability of demonstrating the anatomic details and contrast discrimination between normal and abnormal tissues, the ability of MR to separate the tumor from the edema and to differentiate among different pathologic entities remained to be further evaluated. CT was superior to MR in 13 patients with acute intracranial hematomas, small calcific lesions, inflammatory granulomas or meningiomas. CT takes less time and may be preferable in very young or elderly patients. Both MR and CT gave equivalent information in the remaining patients. MR proved to complement CT in the evaluation of many disease entities and may actually supplant CT in some.