Ventricular CSF pulsation artifact

Case contributed by Mostafa Elfeky
Diagnosis almost certain

Presentation

Headache

Patient Data

Age: 20 years
Gender: Male

Bilateral rounded signal alteration at the body of both lateral ventricles adjacent to septum pellucidum, in the region of foramina of Monro. They appear of high FLAIR and low T2 signals.

Annotated image

Green arrows point at the site of CSF pulsation artifact.

Case Discussion

This appearance is mostly a ventricular CSF pulsation artifact. It shouldn't be confused with intraventricular pathology. This artifact is not seen on T1 W sequence. The jets of CSF are seen in coronal T2 W sequence.

This artifact, common in low-field MRI systems, mainly affects FLAIR sequence and occurs more common in young patients with small ventricular sizes.

MRI study was performed on a 0.36T MagSense 360 (Mindray, China) open MRI machine.

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