MS AJNR Am J Neuroradiol 20:1931–1938, November/December 1999 A Comparison of MR Imaging with Fast-FLAIR, HASTE-FLAIR, and EPI-FLAIR Sequences in the Assessment of Patients with Multiple Sclerosis

es are sensitive for detecting lesions in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). More rapid fast-FLAIR imaging of the brain can be achieved by the concomitant use of half-Fourier acquisition single-shot turbo spin-echo (HASTE-FLAIR) and echo-planar imaging (EPI-FLAIR). The pres-ent study was performed in a large cohort of subjects to assess and compare the number and volume of brain lesions detected by the fast-FLAIR, HASTE-FLAIR, and EPI-FLAIR sequenc-es in patients with MS. METHODS: Fast-FLAIR, HASTE-FLAIR, and EPI-FLAIR sequences were obtained from 46 consecutive MS patients. Lesions seen on each type of sequence were counted and classified by consensus by two observers. Lesion volumes were measured using a semiautomated seg-mentation technique based on local thresholding. RESULTS: The quality of the fast-FLAIR images was significantly better than that of HASTE-FLAIR and EPI-FLAIR images. Fast-FLAIR revealed significantly more lesions and higher lesion volumes than did HASTE-FLAIR and EPI-FLAIR. A similar number of large lesions was detected by the three sequences, but HASTE-FLAIR and EPI-FLAIR showed sig-nificantly fewer small and intermediate lesions than did fast-FLAIR. The number of lesion