Sensitivity of delayed gadolinium-enhanced MRI in multiple sclerosis

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Abstract
Introduction ‐ We performed this study to define the sensitivity of delayed gadolinium‐enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in detecting active lesions in the brains of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). Material and methods ‐ T1weighted images were obtained in 27 patients with relapsing‐remitting or secondary progressive MS before, 5–7 min and 20–30 min after the injection of 0.1 mmol/kg gadolinium‐DTPA. Results ‐ One‐hundred‐and‐three enhancing lesions were found on the early and 110 on the delayed scans (increase = 6.4%). Six patients had 8 additional lesions in the delayed scans, while 1 patient had 1 more lesion on the early scan. Two of the 12 (17%) patients with no enhancing lesions on the early scans had 2 enhancing lesions on the delayed scans. The average increase of enhancing lesion detection with delayed scanning was 14.5% for those patients who already had enhancing lesions on the early post‐contrast scans. A significant increase of the enhancing lesion volume was found with delayed scanning (P=:0.004). Conclusion ‐ These data indicate that it is possible to increase MRI sensitivity in detecting MS active lesions by delaying the scanning after gadolinium injection.