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CSF Pulsation Flow Void Artifact Mimicking SEGA

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This is a 13-month-old child

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with tuberous sclerosis complex

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receiving an MRI for routine surveillance.

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And we can see on this FLAIR image,

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multiple subependymal nodules.

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You can see better on the T2-weighted imaging,

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the relatively confluent areas of dysplasia

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in the right parietal lobe,

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an additional conglomeration of

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relatively confluent dysplasia

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in the left frontal pole.

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Several other areas,

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you can see this gyrus is rather enlarged,

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doesn't maintain the normal typical morphology

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of the sulcation pattern expected there.

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So, one thing that was noted is this lesion here

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and this caught people's attention.

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But if we look closely,

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we're not seeing a correlate on T2-weighted imaging.

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While some of these nodules enhance,

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there is nothing enhancing in this location

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in the anterior body of the

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left lateral ventricle.

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And I'm not seeing anything on STIR either,

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except I'm seeing a slightly ill-defined

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area of hypointense signal.

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So, this is a fake out.

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This is not a subependymal giant astrocytoma.

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This is something that we can see in many

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MRIs of the brain,

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and our eyes may end up ignoring it,

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or sometimes maybe we may get concerned.

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This is a CSF pulsation flow void.

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CSF is coming through

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the foramen of Monroe.

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And at the time that the inversion pulse know

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the signal of water here, between the time

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of that inversion pulse and the readout,

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this fluid comes in with protons that

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had not received the inversion pulse.

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And so, we're seeing this bright signal here

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and we're seeing a subtle little, you know,

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flow anomaly here, flow void really

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to CSF pulsation.

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So, this is normal.

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This is a physiologic finding.

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This is not a subependymal giant cell astrocytoma.

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This is just a good example that even in

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patients with a known disease process,

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those scans are prone to all the normal

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artifacts that we see in other imaging

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sequences in other patients.

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So, we see another CSF pulsation

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flow void in the fourth ventricle here.

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But so, this is a patient with

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tuberous sclerosis complex,

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moderately severe burden of dysplasia,

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multiple subependymal nodules and a CSF

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pulsation flow void that could

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be mistaken for a sega.

Report

Description

Faculty

Asim F Choudhri, MD

Chief, Pediatric Neuroradiology

Le Bonheur Children's Hospital

Tags

Syndromes

Pediatrics

Neuroradiology

Neuro

MRI

Brain

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