Purpose: To determine the role in presurgical assessment and evaluate the yield of fast fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) sequences for patients with intractable partial epilepsy for whom conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was normal.
Material and methods: Forty patients were selected. Conventional MRI including spin echo T1-weighted sagittal images and fast spin echo T2-weighted axial images was normal in 33 patients and showed noninformative lesions in 7. Fast FLAIR and T2-weighted sequences were performed perpendicularly to the hippocampal long axis.
Results: Additional abnormalities were found in 40%. They were correlated with electroclinical data in 13 patients (32.5%) and not correlated or doubtful in 3 (7.5%).
Conclusion: Fast FLAIR sequences brought congruent additional information in 32.5% cases and seemed useful in presurgical evaluation.