Spine MRI in Spontaneous Intracranial Hypotension for CSF Leak Detection: Nonsuperiority of Intrathecal Gadolinium to Heavily T2-Weighted Fat-Saturated Sequences

Abstract

Intrathecal gadolinium-enhanced spine MR imaging does not improve the diagnostic accuracy for the detection of epidural CSF. Thus, it lacks a rationale to be included in the routine spontaneous intracranial hypotension work-up. Heavily T2-weighted images with fat saturation provide high accuracy for the detection of an epidural CSF collection. Low accuracy for leak localization is due to an extensive CSF collection spanning several vertebrae (false localizing sign), lack of temporal resolution, and a multiplicity of suspicious lesions, albeit only a single leakage site is present. Thus, dynamic examination is mandatory before targeted treatment is initiated.