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The authors performed a retrospective blinded analysis of cervical cord MR imaging examinations of 50 patients with MS. In each patient, 2 neuroradiologists measured the number of focal lesions and overall lesion conspicuity in the STIR/proton density–weighted TSE and WM-suppressed T1 inversion recovery sequence groups. Substantial interreader agreement was noted on the WM-suppressed T1 inversion recovery sequence compared with STIR/proton density–weighted TSE. Average lesion conspicuity was better on the WM-suppressed T1 inversion recovery sequence. Additionally, spurious lesions were more common on STIR/proton density–weighted TSE than on the WM-suppressed T1 inversion recovery sequence. They conclude that the WM-suppressed T1 inversion recovery sequence could potentially be substituted for either STIR or proton density–weighted TSE sequences in routine clinical protocols.

Eight symptomatic patients with Chiari I malformation and 6 healthy participants were studied by using MR pencil beam imaging with a temporal resolution of 50 ms. Patients and healthy participants were scanned in real-time during resting, coughing, and postcoughing periods. CSF flow waveform amplitude, CSF stroke volume, and CSF flow rate were compared between the patients and the control population. Real-time MR imaging noninvasively showed a transient decrease in CSF flow across the foramen magnum after coughing in symptomatic patients with Chiari I malformation.