Pressure Mapping and Hemodynamic Assessment of Intracranial Dural Sinuses and Dural Arteriovenous Fistulas with 4D Flow MRI

The feasibility of 4D flow MR imaging to visualize flow patterns and generate relative pressure maps in the dural venous sinus in healthy subjects (n = 60) and patients with dural arteriovenous fistulas (n = 7) was investigated. Dural venous drainage was classified based on torcular Herophili anatomy by using 4D flow MR imaging-derived angiograms and magnitude images. Subjects were scanned in a 3T clinical MR imaging system. 4D flow MR imaging enabled noninvasive characterization of dural sinus anatomy and mapping of relative pressure differences.