Toshiba’s Vantage Titan 1.5T and 3T MR systems can help visualize CSF bulk flow

Cerebral Spinal Fluid (CSF), the clear water-like fluid that surrounds the brain and the spinal cord, plays a key role in maintaining balanced brain dynamics. For the first time, CSF bulk flow can now be visualized non-invasively with Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc.'s Vantage Titan^TM 1.5T and 3T MR systems. Using Toshiba's proprietary Time-Spatial Labeling Inversion Pulse (Time-SLIP) non-contrast technique, CSF flow disorders such as Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus, Chiari Malformations and Subarachnoid Cysts, which often require invasive procedures to diagnose and treat, can be visualized quickly and easily with MR imaging.  

Using a 2D FASE sequence, Toshiba's Time-SLIP technique can acquire a series of single-shot images to help visualize CSF flow without the use of contrast. Time-SLIP offers the ability to evaluate CSF disorders and may positively impact patients who require a shunt to restore CSF flow, drain it from a cyst or open a pathway that is currently blocked.

"Toshiba's advanced CSF flow MR visualization technique is an industry breakthrough as it allows the understanding of CSF disorders in a new way that can directly and immediately benefit patient care," said Stuart Clarkson, director, MR Business Unit, Toshiba. "Time-SLIP's ability to evaluate and observe CSF flow on Toshiba's 1.5T and 3T MR systems provides clinicians with an advanced solution to improve patient diagnoses and outcomes."    

Source: Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc.