D. R. Enzmann is the radiologist credited under that byline as first author of Normal flow patterns of intracranial and spinal cerebrospinal fluid defined with phase-contrast cine MR imaging by D. R. Enzmann and others. With N. J. Pelc, Enzmann reported measurements of moving cerebrospinal fluid, using magnetic resonance imaging to investigate physiology as well as anatomical appearance.[ref]
Normal flow patterns of intracranial and spinal cerebrospinal fluid defined with phase-contrast cine MR imaging by D. R. Enzmann and others. Radiology 178 (1991), 467–474; verified byline and abstract.
The study examined ten healthy volunteers and four patients whose conventional MR images were normal. Peripheral gating produced sixteen quantitative flow-encoded images over the cardiac cycle. Measurements distinguished the timing of fluid motion in ventricular and subarachnoid spaces, demonstrating why static anatomy alone does not describe pulsatile movement.[ref]
Normal flow patterns of intracranial and spinal cerebrospinal fluid defined with phase-contrast cine MR imaging by D. R. Enzmann and others. Abstract: participant groups, peripheral gating and regional flow timing.
The methodological contribution is an example of turning image contrast into a physiological measurement. Direction-sensitive signals and repeated sampling across a heartbeat distinguish oscillatory motion from a compartment that simply looks fluid-filled. The reported display convention assigned opposite intensities to opposite craniocaudal directions; that convention belongs to the acquisition and is not a universal rule for brightness in every MR image.
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