Magnetic resonance imaging using FLAIR pulse sequence in white matter diseases

Fifty six patients among whom 39 had white matter diseases had MRI of the brain comparing FLAIR sequence to a conventional proton density sequence. Flair sequence allowed to detect 18 additional hypersignal (HS) that were not present on T2 sequence. These HS were located in the periventricular areas for 5 of them, near the cortical sulci in 10, and in the centrum semi-ovale for 3. FLAIR sequence permitted analyze 41 other lesions that were not obvious on proton density sequences. Thirty five of them were thus confirmed to be HS : 31 in the paracortical areas, 3 in the paraventricular regions and one in the internal capsule, whereas the remaining 6 were normal sulci of the brain. FLAIR sequence increases the sensitivity of MRI in white matter diseases.