MR angiography of abnormal vascular structures in rolandic cortical dysplasia

Abstract

Cerebral cortical dysplasia represents one of the disorders ofneuronal migration and sulcation, which is associated with an excessively thickened and infolded cortex, lined usually by polymicrogyria. It may be diffuse or focal. Abnormal venous drainage in anomalies of neuronal migration was originally described by Barkovich in 1988 by conventional angiography. Authors present a patient with cerebral cortical dysplasia in whom abnormal cortical veins at the region of dysplastic cortices were demonstrated by means of MR angiography using the 3-dimentional phase-contrast (3D-PC) technique with a low flow velocity (7 cm/sec). Demonstration of such abnormal venous drainage utilizing MR angiography is a recently described entity.