White Matter Disease Flashcards
MRI appearance of white matter injury
T2 prolongation
tumefactive demyelination: mass like/enhance
scattered foci of T2 prolongation (hyperintense) in the subcorical, deep, periventricular white matter
chronic microvascular dx (older adults)
chronic migraine headaches (younger pts); from prior infection, inflammatory disease
Virchow robin spaces
tiny perivascular spaces that follow deep penetrating vessels into subarachnoidd space; follows CSF space
enlarged virchow robin spaces and J shaped sella
mucopolysaccharidoses
ependymitis granularis
frontal horn periventricular hyperintensity due to interstitial CSF backup
autoimmune/idiopathic/inflammatory white matter disease
MS, Concentric/balo sclerosis, Marburg variant, Devic disease/Neuromyelitis optica
most common demyelinating disease
Multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis population, cause, presentations
population: middle aged caucasian females from northern latitdes
cause: autoimmune; idiopathic inflammatory destruction of CNS axons in brain/spinal cord; lymphocytes attack oligodendrocytes (make CNS myelin)
presentations: relapsing/remitting (most common) and progressive
Relapsing/remitting MS
partial/complete resolution of each acute attack
most common type
Progressive MS
no resolution between acute attacks
primary progressive: slow onset, without discrete exacerbations
secondary progressive: less complete resolution between attacks/ progressive disability
first sign of MS
optic neuritis; MRI brain used to look for other lesions which may be clinically silent
McDonald Criteria 2010
new lesions separate in space (areas of CNS) and time (new lesions across scans)
MS imaging findings
- periventricular ovoid T2 prolongation foci that point toward ventricles (Dawson fingers), usually in corpus callosum
- enhancing = active demyelination
- T2 dark lesions: black holes associated with severe demyelination/axonal loss
- chronic: cortical atrophy, thinning corpus callosum
- MRI spectroscopy: decrease NAA, increase choline, lipids, lactate
- tumefactive MS: ringe enhancement, mass like appearance of active plaque
- spine: short segment/unilateral
concentric/balo sclerosis
rare variant of MS
pathognomonic alternating concentric bands of normal/abnormal myelin
often seen in younger pts
Marburg variant
fulminant manifestation of MS, death in a few months