Brachial Plexus MRI Protocol

BP MRI Protocol

Fall is upon us and so is the lecturing season! Like years before, this Fall I will be giving my brachial plexus lecture several times and the most commonly asked question by the audience is: “where can I get your MRI protocol?” For this reason I am posting it here.  Posting of protocols seems to gather considerable attention; Dr. Wiggins post on MRI and CT protocols has been viewed over 1900 times!  Caveats regarding this post: our BP protocol was designed to satisfy the needs of our clinicians here at UNC, your referring physicians may be expecting different information and you will have to adjust it to meet their needs.  There is more “than one way to skin a cat”: I suggest looking at the way others image the BP.  Dr. Ken Maravilla and his group at the University of Washington use MR neurography, a technique that we do not have but produces lovely images of the peripheral nerves.  They have published extensively about it.  Brian Bowen from the University of Miami has also written several articles on imaging of the BP and uses a very nice protocol which is different than ours.