Subarachnoid FLAIR hyperintensity

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

Differential diagnosis

Pathological causes

subarachnoid haemorrhage
meningitis
leptomeningeal carcinomatosis
FLAIR vascular hyperintensities in acute stroke ^1,4,8
moya moya disease
leptomeningeal melanosis
fat-containing lesions in subarachnoid space
- lipoma
- ruptured dermoid cyst

Artefactual 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 neovascularisation ⁷
CSF flow artefact
vascular pulsation artefact
magnetic susceptibility artefact
motion artefact

~~-<a href="/articles/flair-vascular-hyperintensities">FLAIR vascular hyperintensities</a> in <a title="Ischemic stroke" href="/articles/ischaemic-stroke">acute stroke</a> 1,4,8~~
+<a href="/articles/flair-vascular-hyperintensities">FLAIR vascular hyperintensities</a> in <a href="/articles/ischaemic-stroke">acute stroke</a> 1,4,8
-<li>recent gadolinium administration <ul><li>lasting ~2-24 hours, especially if there is adjacent pathology which involves disruption of the <a title="Blood brain barrier" href="/articles/blood-brain-barrier">blood-brain barrier</a>, or neovascularisation 7
+<li>recent gadolinium administration <ul><li>lasting ~2-24 hours, especially if there is adjacent pathology which involves disruption of the <a href="/articles/blood-brain-barrier">blood-brain barrier</a>, or neovascularisation 7
~~-<li>CSF flow artefact</li>~~
+<li>
+<a title="CSF" href="/articles/cerebrospinal-fluid-1">CSF</a> flow artefact</li>
~~-<li><a title="Magnetic susceptibility artefact" href="/articles/magnetic-susceptibility-artifact">magnetic susceptibility artefact</a></li>~~
~~-<li><a title="Motion artefact" href="/articles/motion-artifact-2">motion artefact</a></li>~~
+<li><a href="/articles/magnetic-susceptibility-artifact">magnetic susceptibility artefact</a></li>
+<li><a href="/articles/motion-artifact-2">motion artefact</a></li>

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Subarachnoid FLAIR hyperintensity

Updates to Article Attributes

Differential diagnosis

Pathological causes

Artefactual causes

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