Comparison Study between Conventional Sequence and Slice-Encoding Metal Artifact Correction (SEMAC) in the Diagnosis of Postoperative Complications in Patients Receiving Lumbar Inter-Body Fusion and Pedicle Screw Fixation Surgery
Fig 3
Visibility score of neural foramen and diagnostic confidence of neural foraminal stenosis in sagittal images.
These two sagittal images are obtained from a 75 year old female who underwent inter-body fusion at L3-4 and L4-5 and posterior instrumentation at L3-L5 level due to spinal stenosis. The time interval between surgery and the spine MRI was 2 years and 6 months. (a) Sagittal Fast spin echo T2 -weighted image shows grade 0 (observer 1) and 0 (observer 2) of visibility of neural foramen at the left L4-5 (arrow). (b) Sagittal FSE-SEMAC T2- weighted image shows grade 3 (observer 1) and 2 (observer 2) of visibility of neural foramen at the same level (arrow). After application of FSE-SEMAC sequence, diagnostic confidence level of neural foraminal stenosis was changed from grade 3 (inconclusive) to grade 1 (definitely absent) in both reviewers.