Hypoglossal Nerve Lesions: The Role of a 3D IR‐Prepped Fast SPGR High‐Resolution 3T MRI Sequence

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE To assess a 3D high-resolution IR-prepped fast SPGR high-resolution MRI sequence for evaluating hypoglossal nerve lesions. METHODS The clinical data of 8 patients with hypoglossal nerve lesions admitted from December 2011 to February 2016 were retrospectively analyzed. MRI included contrast-enhanced conventional sequences and a 3D IR-prepped fast SPGR high-resolution T1-weighted (BRAVO) MRI sequence at 3T. RESULTS Eight patients had hypoglossal lesions detected by MRI. Conventional enhanced scanning could not clearly display the hypoglossal nerve and canal, while the enhanced 3D high-resolution sequence could. In addition, multiple planar reconstruction clearly displayed the hypoglossal nerve, hypoglossal canal, and lesions in multiple planes. CONCLUSIONS Compared with conventional MRI, we show superior results from an advanced sequence to improve image quality in characterizing hypoglossal nerve lesions.