The veins of the nucleus dentatus: Anatomical and radiological findings Antonio Di Ieva a,b, ⁎ ,1 , Manfred Tschabitscher a,1 , Renato Juan Galzio c , Günther Grabner d , Claudia Kronnerwetter d , Georg Widhalm b , Christian Matula b , Siegfried Trattnig d a Centre for Anatomy and Cell Biology, Department of Systematic Anatomy, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria b Department of Neurosurgery, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria c Department of Neurosurgery, Medical School of the University of L'Aquila, Italy d Department of Radiology, MR Centre of Excellence, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria abstract article info Article history: Received 23 April 2010 Revised 8 July 2010 Accepted 19 July 2010 Available online 23 July 2010 Keywords: Cerebellum Dentate nucleus Posterior fossa veins Vena centralis nuclei dentati 7 Tesla MR SWI Ultra-high field MR The veins of the dentate nucleus are composed of several channels draining the external surface and one single vein draining the internal surface. We analyzed specimens of the human cerebellum and described the central vein of the nucleus dentatus as the main venous outflow of the nucleus. The central vein of the nucleus dentatus is formed by a network of smaller vessels draining the sinuosities of the gray matter; it emerges from the hilum of the nucleus and runs along the superior cerebellar peduncle, opening in the anterior vermian vein. We looked for this structure and for the surrounding veins on ultra-high-field (7 Tesla) MR, using susceptibility-weighted imaging. An anatomical and radiological description of the veins of the dentate nucleus is provided, with some remarks on the future clinical applications that these findings could provide. © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Introduction Despite the large number of articles that have been published on the neurophysiology of the dentate nucleus (DN), there are not many reports about its vascularization in the literature. The DN occupies a strategic position and is involved in a myriad of physiological networks; its function is related to attention, working memory, pro- cedural reasoning, salience detection, and task-planning (Manto and Oulad Ben Taib, 2010). The anatomical and functional connectivity of the DN is reflected in its vascular network. The venous system is one of the most variable and heterogeneous organs of the human body, and cerebellar veins show several different anatomic patterns (Namin, 1955). Although some attempts to describe the cerebellar venous system were published before the nineteenth century, the first systematic study of the venous system of the posterior fossa was performed only in 1950 (Gomez Oliveros, 1950). Later, several anat- omical studies were performed, with some specific remarks on the angiographic comparisons. In 1978 a monograph was published that emphasized the diagnostic importance of the phlebogram in the posterior fossa (Wackenheim and Braun, 1978), because veins are important reference points: they trace the contours of the nervous system parenchyma and cisterns. For this reason, despite the het- erogeneity of the venous system, veins are critical landmarks for neuroradiological diagnosis and surgical orientation. The most relatively recent reports about the venous system of the brain and the infratentorial structures were published by Duvernoy (1975, 1978, 1999). Only a few reports have focused on the vascularization of the nucleus dentatus (Fazzari, 1933; Goetzen, 1964; Icardo et al., 1982; Lang, 1991; Shellshear, 1922; Tschabitscher and Perneczcy, 1976), and, particularly, on the veins of the nucleus dentatus (Tschabitscher, 1979). In the neuroradiologic developments of the last several decades, digital subtraction angiography and MR imaging have confirmed the possibility of detecting the small veins of the cerebellum, although the smaller veins of the dentate nucleus have not been described by these techniques. In order to compare the neuroradiological findings to those obtained in anatomical dissections, ultra-high-field 7 Tesla susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) (Haacke et al., 2004, 2005) was performed. SWI is a novel imaging technique that is sensitive to paramagnetic structures, such as deep brain nuclei (Haacke et al., 2005), which are known to have an elevated iron level, and veins; the technique has already been used for vessel related studies (Essig et al., 1999; Rauscher et al., 2005a,b; Reichenbach et al., 2000). NeuroImage 54 (2011) 74–79 ⁎ Corresponding author. Centre of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Department of Systematic Anatomy, Medical University of Vienna, Waehringerstrasse 13, 1090 Vienna, Austria. Fax: +43 1 4277 611 24. E-mail address: diieva@hotmail.com (A. Di Ieva). 1 These authors contributed equally. 1053-8119/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.07.045 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect NeuroImage journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ynimg