Subcallosal Striations: the Role of FLAIR MR Imaging in Detecting these lesions in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the reliability of Fluid Attenuation Inversion Recovery (FLAIR) in detection of subcallosal striations in clinical Multiple sclerosis (MS) patients and determine its role as a good noninvasive tool for the diagnosis of this disease.
Material and Method: Forty patients with clinically proved MS were examined along with 40 control patients well matched for age who presented with other indications for MRI study. Two mm Sagittal FLAIR sequence was added to the routine MRI studies of the brain. The images were reviewed for the presence of subcallosal striations. The study was conducted at King Hussein Medical Centre, Amman-Jordan from January 2005 to July 2007.
Result: All the 40 patients with clinical MS had subcallosal striations. Of the 40 without MS only four had subcallosal striations. Subcallosal striations were highly associated (P < .001) with clinical MS.
Conclusions:
FLAIR is a reliable tool for detection of subcallosal striations in MS which are not seen on routine axial MR images. However, these striations later produce the ovoid lesions visible on routine MR imaging.


Keywords: Multiple sclerosis; Magnetic resonance imaging; Subcallosal Striations

Sudan Journal of Medical Sciences Vol. 2 (4) 2007: pp. 253-256