Neuroradiology

What’s Neuroradiology?

Neuroradiology is a side branch of the radiology, and science that enables making a diagnosis using imaging methods for the diseases of brain – the spinal cord and head – neck diagnosis. All imaging modalities under radiology (plain radiographs, ultrasound, color Doppler ultrasonography, computed tomography, computed tomographic angiography, magnetic resonance imaging, magnetic resonance spectroscopy, functional magnetic resonance imaging, magnetic resonance angiography, and catheter angiography methods) are used for this purpose.

Which method will be used in which disease may vary according to the disease and the patient.

Nowadays, neuroradiology is divided into two separate parts within itself:

1 – Diagnostic Neuroradiology
2 – Interventional Neuroradiology

Despite diagnosis and monitoring of the diseases by imaging methods mentioned above under diagnostic neuroradiology, treatment of some of the diseases are undertaken with the scope of interventional neuroradiology.

Generally, the treatments of the diseases having vascular origin (aneurysms, arteriovenous malformations, by reaching the arteriovenous fistulas intravenously (endovascular means), dilatation of strictures in neck and brain vessels (balloon dilatation and/or stent insertion)early-stage treatments of stroke/brain attack, obstruction of the vessels feeding the tumor in some of the brain and head-neck region tumors, treatment of the malformation and hemangiomas intravenously or by injection methods may be performed by using interventional neuroradiologic methods. These methods usually are used as an alternative to open surgical procedures, performed by the angiography method by entering via the groin vessels.