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Detection of CSF flow in the ventriculo-Peritoneal shunt using MRI
1Department of Neurosurgery, Suwa Central Hospital, Nagano, Japan.
Objective:
A noninvasive test for shunt function would be beneficial in the management of patients with CSF shunting. We present our method to diagnose shunt function using MRI.
Materials And Methods:
We performed two experiments. In the first we simultaneously performed MRI of two tubes, one with water flowing inside at various flow speeds and the other with static water inside, and compared the signal intensity inside each lumen. In the second we took four MR images of the actual shunt tubes in three patients at different states of shunt function, each having a tube containing static water pasted side by side with the actual subcutaneous shunt tube.
Results:
In the first experiment we could detect the enhancement effect of slow flow. The minimal detectable flow speed using this method was approximately 1.7 ml/h. The result obtained in actual patients matched the clinical status of the shunt function.
Conclusion:
This method would be useful as a qualitative test for shunt function.