Visualization of thalamostriate vein and its tributaries on susceptibility-weighted imaging

Abstract

Abstract: Objective: Thalamostriate vein is an important tributary of the internal cerebral vein which mainly drains the areas of basal ganglia and deep medulla. Susceptibility-weighted imaging is a very practical technique which is sensitive to veins, especially tiny veins. The purpose of this study was to explore the anatomic morphology of thalamostriate vein and its smaller tributaries by using SWI at 3.0Tesla and then provide the basis for the diagnosis and treatment of cerebral venous disease and the minimally invasive neurosurgery. METHODS: We acquired SWI images in 40 volunteers on a 3.0T MR system by using an 8-channel high-resolution brain phased array coil. The SWI images were reformatted by using minimum intensity projections (mIPs) technique in the transverse, sagittal and coronal plane. The anatomic morphology of thalamostriate vein and its tributaries were evaluated on the original images and reconstructed images. We classified thalamostriate vein into 2 types (Type Ⅰ and Type Ⅱ) . The anterior caudate veins were classified into 2 types (Type 1 and Type 2) and 3 Types (Type A, B and C).RESULTS: The thalamostriate vein drains the areas of caudate nucleus, the internal capsule, lentiform nucleus, the external capsule, the claustrum, the extreme capsule and the white matter of the frontoparietal lobes，except thalamus. The frequencies of the thalamostriate vein, anterior caudate veins and transverse caudate veins were 92.5%、87.5%、63.8%, separately. We found Type Ⅰ and Type Ⅱ in 79.7%, 20.3% and TypeⅠon the right side was more common than the left （P <0.05）.The most common types of anterior caudate veins were Type 1 (80.4%) and Type A(68.9%). CONCLUSION: SWI could clearly demonstrate the anatomy of the thalamostriate vein and its smaller tributaries.

Key words: Susceptibility-weighted imaging, thalamostriate vein, anterior caudate veins, minimum intensity projections (mIPs), venous drainage

References

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