Claudia Fellner1, Cynthia Menzel1, Franz A. Fellner2, Christine Ginthr2, Niels Zorger1, Ernst M. Jung1, Stefan Feuerbach1, Thomas Finkenzeller1
1Institute of Radiology, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany; 2Institute of Radiology, General Hospital, Linz, Austria
To evaluate the BLADE technique for sagittal T2-weighted imaging of the cervical spine for routine application, BLADE and TSE sequences were compared in 60 successive patients. Image sharpness, motion, truncation and metal artifacts, flow phenomena, vertebral body/disk and spinal cord/CSF contrast, and diagnostic reliability of spinal cord depiction were graded visually. BLADE was statistically superior to TSE for all criteria except for metal artifacts. In a side-by-side comparison of both sequences BLADE was superior for diagnostic purpose in 50/60, inferior in 3/60 patients. Therefore, BLADE seems to be a promising technique for routine sagittal T2-weighted imaging of the cervical spine.