DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2019.v07i12.028

Pages: 3966-3969

MRI provides information that is useful for diagnosing ischemic stroke, selecting appropriate patients for thrombolytic therapy and predicting the prognosis of ischemic stroke. Although modern multi sequences stroke MRI protocols are an emerging imaging routine for the diagnostic assessment of cerebral micro bleeding. The objective of this study was to determine the yield of adding T2*-weighted gradient echo to a conven¬tional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocol for cerebral micro bleeding Hemorrhage. Sample size of 200 patients in both genders (male=94, female=106) was used. In the present study, patients had brain MRI after presentation on a 1.5 T Philips MRI scanner on MRI sequences in the following order (including axial T2*, DWI, T2-weighted and fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) sequences). Mean patient age was 47.82 years, Std. D was 18.108. New MRI techniques provide critical information in detecting acute bleeding. As blood extravasates in the tissue, the hemoglobin molecule becomes deoxygenated. Deoxyhemoglobin thereby produces a non-uniform magnetic field that results in rapid dephasing of proton spins in T2- and more so in T2*-weighted images. Our results confirmed the useful of T2*-weighted gradient-echo sequence in detecting early cerebral hemorrhage as part of a multimodal stroke MRI protocol. The findings suggest that micro bleeds on T2*-weighted MRI are an indicator of advanced small artery disease of the brain with an increasing risk of bleeding. This result should be taken into consideration when treating patients with stroke and further studies are required. Gradient-echo T2*-weighted MRI is uniquely sensitive to detect silent, old hemosiderin deposits, but the clinical significance of such “micro bleeds” remains to be determined.