Brain magnetic resonanceimaging findings in 33 patients with neuromyelitis optica

Abstract

：Objective To investigatethe brain magnetic resonance imaging(MRI)findings in 33 patients with neuromyelitisoptica(NMO).Methods Patients who fulfilled the latest diagnostic criteria of NMO and whosebrain MRI did not satisfied with diagnostic criteria of multiple sclerosis(MS)wereenrolled.All the patients underwent brain MRI and spinal cord scannings and subsequentimages analysis.Results Thirty-three patients with NMO were included to study.Five out of33(15.2%)patients did not have brain parenchymal abnormalities,28 out of 33patients(84.8%)were detected to have brain abnormal findings.Brain parenchymal lesionswere well-defined in 22 patients(66.7%),no non-specific or atypical brain parenchymallesions were found in the supratentorium or infratentorium in the other 6cases(18.2%).However,brain MRI disclosed macroscopic,symmetrical diffuse FLAIR andT2-visible hyperintensity in deep white matter.Fifteen cases had more than one lesion(≥2 lesions),and the other 7 caseshad single lesion.Supratentorial lesions were mostly punctate or small dots in nonspecifichyperintensity in juxtacortical,subcortical and deep white matter regions,a few wereatypical patches.In the infratentorium,brainstem was an easily involvedregion(14/33,42.4%),especially in medulla(7/33,21.2%).Conclusions Brain MRI abnormalitiesare common in Chinese NMO,and brain lesions do not exclude the diagnosis of NMO.Theobservations of brain lesions are helpful to improve and revise diagnostic criteria ofNMO. Key words: Neuromyelitis optica; Magnetic resonance imaging; Multiplesclerosis