The value of double inversion recovery MRI sequence in assessment of epilepsy patients

Background The double inversion recovery (DIR) pulse sequence was introduced several years ago and since that it grew important value in clinical neuroimaging. We aimed to assess the added value of double inversion recovery in evaluation of epileptic patients. Results In mesial temporal sclerosis, the measured contrast parameters (SNR, CR, CNR and AI) were found to be significantly higher in DIR than in FLAIR and T2 sequences. In cases of focal cortical dysplasia, significantly higher CNR and AI in DIR than in T2 and FLAIR. Also DIR showed higher detection of the increased cortical thickness and cortical signal intensity than the T2 and FLAIR sequences. In tuberous sclerosis cases, the DIR showed higher visibility of the lesions than the T2 and FLAIR. Also DIR showed higher ability to detected grey-white matters junction blurring. Conclusions Our study concluded that the greatest value of the double inversion recovery sequence is its higher ability in detecting multiple characteristics of the lesions in a one sequence.