Visualization of brain infarction with nuclear magnetic resonance imaging.

Nine patients with cerebral or cerebellar hemispheric infarction and two patients with brain stem lesions were studied with NMR imaging in order to examine the lesion with different weightings on the various NMR parameters. The time interval between examination and the acute onset of the stroke varied from one day to six months. The lesions were clearly detected by the T1 weighted inversion recovery sequence but the tissue contrast was better using the spin echo sequence with a long repetition rate and a long echo delay (SE2000/100). In two patients the brain stem lesions were invisible with CT, but were easily depicted with NMR. In one of them the further progress of the lesion was also confirmed and visualized with the follow-up NMR study.