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Updated: Jun 19, 2026
In Vivo Morphometric Analysis of Human Cranial Nerves Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Menière's Disease Ears and Normal Hearing Ears
Published on: February 21, 2018
Superior Visualization of Intracavernous Cranial Nerves with 3D T1 VIBE Compared with MPRAGE in Patients with
Hyeji Lee1, Dawon Jung1, Eunhee Kim1
1From the Department of Radiology (H.L., D.J., E.K.), Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital, Department of Radiology (H.K.), Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, South Korea.
Background And Purpose:
To compare the visualization of intracavernous cranial nerve (CN) III, V1, V2, and VI between contrast-enhanced three-dimensional (3D), T1 volume-interpolated breath-hold examination (VIBE) and magnetization-prepared rapid-acquisition gradient-echo (MPRAGE) sequences in patients with neuro-ophthalmic symptoms.
Materials And Methods:
This retrospective study analyzed 54 neuro-ophthalmic MRI examinations performed for one year. Contrast-enhanced 3D T1 VIBE and MPRAGE sequences with fat suppression were acquired coronally with 1.5-mm slice thickness. One neuroradiologist and two residents independently evaluated the degree of cavernous sinus enhancement and visualization of bilateral intracavernous CNs' entire course. Wilcoxon signed-rank and weighted kappa tests were used for statistical analysis.
Results:
VIBE demonstrated significantly higher visual conspicuity scores for all intracavernous CNs compared to MPRAGE across all readers (p<0.001). The visualization rates for the entire course of intracavernous CNs III, V1, V2, and VI were substantially higher on VIBE (96-98%, 65-70%, 61-72%, and 70-78%, respectively) than MPRAGE (69-74%, 6-9%, 35-44%, and 19-22%, respectively). Inter-reader agreement showed significant concordance for both cavernous sinus enhancement and intracavernous CN visualization (p<0.001).
Conclusions:
Contrast-enhanced 3D T1 VIBE sequence provides superior visualization and significantly higher detection rates of intracavernous CNs compared to MPRAGE, with excellent inter-reader agreement. These findings suggest that VIBE should be the preferred sequence for evaluating intracavernous CNs in patients with neuro-ophthalmic symptoms.
