Depiction of the cranial nerves within the brain stem with use of PROPELLER multishot diffusion-weighted imaging.

Despite the recent progress of MR imaging, visualization of the cranial nerves within the brain stem has not been accomplished. Periodically rotated overlapping parallel lines with enhanced reconstruction (PROPELLER) multishot diffusion-weighted imaging, an effective method for compensating for motion and distortion, offers high-quality diffusion-weighted images. We succeeded in depicting the cranial nerves within the brain stem in some subjects by using this method with motion-probing gradient applied in the superior-inferior direction.