comparison of diffuse weighted imaging and fluid attenuation inversion recovery sequences of mri in brain multiple sclerosis plaques detection

purpose: suitable magnetic resonance imaging (mri) techniques from conventional to new devices can help physicians in diagnosis and follow up of multiple sclerosis (ms) patients. the aim of present research was to compare effectiveness of fluid attenuation inversion recovery (flair) sequence of conventional mri and diffuse weighted imaging (dwi) sequence as a new technique in detection of brain ms plaques. methods : in an analytic cross sectional study, dwi and flair sequences of without contrast brain mri of consecutive ms patients whom were referred to mri center of shahid sadoughi hospital, yazd, iran from january to may 2012, evaluated. results: 32 females and 8 males with mean age of 35.20±9.80 years (range = 11-66 years) were evaluated and finally 340 plaques including 127(37.2%) in t2wi, 127(37.2%) in flair, 63(18.5%) in dwi and 24(7.1%) in t1wi were detected. flair sequence is more efficient than dwi in detection of brain ms plaques, oval, round and amorphous plaque shapes, frontal and occipital lobes, periventricular, intracapsular, corpus callosum, centrum semiovale, subcortical and basal ganglia plaques and diameter of detected ms plaques in dwi sequence is smaller than in flair. conclusion: old lesion can be detected by conventional mri and new techniques might be more useful in early inflammatory phase of ms and assessment of experimental treatments. other next studies with more sample size, evaluation and comparison of different mri techniques and in different stages of the disease might be useful for selection of more suitable mri protocols in detection of ms plaques.