subarachnoid FLAIR hyperintensity

There are a wide range of causes for subarachnoid FLAIR hyperintensity, both pathological and artifactual.

Differential diagnosis

Pathological causes

• subarachnoid hemorrhage
• meningitis
• leptomeningeal carcinomatosis
• FLAIR vascular hyperintensities in acute stroke 
• moyamoya disease
• meningeal melanomatosis
• meningeal melanocytosis
• fat-containing lesions in subarachnoid space
  • lipoma
  • ruptured dermoid cyst

Artifactual causes

• hyperoxygenation therapy
• recent gadolinium administration 
  • lasting ~2-24 hours, especially if there is adjacent pathology which involves disruption of the blood-brain barrier, or neovascularization
• CSF flow artifact
• vascular pulsation artifact
• magnetic susceptibility artifact
• motion artifact

Siehe auch:

• Meningeosis neoplastica
• Lipom
• Subarachnoidalblutung
• Meningitis
• Dermoidzyste
• Moyamoya-Erkrankung