Fat-suppression magnetic resonance imaging in the preoperative localization of parathyroid adenomas

Prospective localization of parathyroid adenomas was attempted in 16 patients with hyperparathyroidism prior to surgery. All patients had magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using T1-weighted spin-echo (SE) sequences and a fat-suppression sequence, the short-tau inversion recovery (STIR) sequence. Correlation with the results of surgery yielded an overall sensitivity of 71% and a specificity of 94%. Performance was good in patients with previous surgery and with ectopic tumours. We believe that fat-suppression MRI is a valuable technique in the preoperative localization of parathyroid adenomas in patients with hyperparathyroidism.