A M Sollecito | PubMed Health

PubMed1994

[Anesthesiological problems in magnetic resonance].

A prospective study was carried out on 68 patients examined with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) under general anesthesia. Mean patients age was 10 years (range: 9 days to 77 years). MRI was performed with a 1.5 T superconductive magnet and different anatomical regions were studied: the brain in 63 cases, the lumbar spine in 3, the cervical spine in 1 and finally the upper abdomen in 1 patient. The patients 0-10 years old were anesthetized with isoflurane, while those 11-77 years old were given i.v. propofol and isoflurane. Severe complications occurred in 2 patients only (3%): a 3-year-old child presented respiratory depression and a 21-year-old man had a bronchospasm. Minor complications occurred in 5 more patients. Image quality was excellent in 75% of cases, while few movement artifacts were observed in the extant 25%. To conclude, isoflurane anesthesia is a safe, effective and efficient type of sedation for the patients to be submitted to MRI which can be used also on an outpatient basis.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1994

[The superior and inferior venae cavae: angiography by TOF 2D magnetic resonance versus spin-echo sequences].

This work was aimed at assessing the usefulness of magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) in the investigation and diagnosis of vena cava conditions. Forty-five subjects that is 20 volunteers and 25 patients, were examined with MRA using a 1.5 T superconductive system (SE and angiography pulse sequences). In the 25 patients, 8 cases of thrombosis were diagnosed, together with 4 cases of suspected tumor spread into either the superior or the inferior vena cava, 2 cases of inferior vena cava agenesis, 5 cases of retroaortic left renal vein and 5 cases of abdominal aortic aneurysm. MRA was performed with the 2D time-of-flight (TOF) technique (FA 18 degrees, TR 30-40 ms, TE 10 ms); the images were acquired on the coronal, sagittal and axial planes with and without presaturation pulse and rotated in the post-processing according to the maximum intensity projection. In all volunteers MRA identified jugular veins, subclavian veins, anonymous veins, superior vena cava, inferior vena cava and common iliac veins. The main limitation of MRA was its spatial resolution. MRA proved to be less accurate than SE sequences in the assessment of tumor spread. As for thrombotic conditions, MRA provided useful additional information and is therefore considered a complementary technique to SE MRI. As for venous anomalies (double inferior vena cava, vena cava agenesis and retroaortic left renal vein) and in the study of the relationships with abdominal aortic aneurysms, MRA proved to be the more accurate of the two techniques.

Adult↗