Learning objectives
The purpose of our educational exhibit is to:
1/ Discuss typical image findings of encephalitis.
2/ Describe how to proceed in a purpose to assist the clinician in his diagnostic process.
Background
The encephalitis is an acute inflammation of the brain.
It must be evocated when the patient has symptoms like fever,
photophobia or headache.
It affects mainly children,
older adults and patients with immunodeficiency.
The etiologies are varied.
The most common etiology is a viral infection,
but also septic-embolic like in the bacterial or fungal encephalitis.
Findings and procedure details
The imaging gold standard in suspected encephalitis is MRI.
Invariably MRI demonstrates brain edema in the affected region.
Diffusion restriction may be present or not.
Gadolinium-Enhancement is usually absent early in the disease but may occur later due to breakdown of the blood brain barrier.
Thus,
repeating the exam may be useful in some cases Fig.
1.
It is important to study the distribution of the lesions,
which can be helpful in the etiologic approach.
For example the involvement of the temporal lobe is typical...
Conclusion
The contribution of the radiologist is essential in the diagnostic approach of encephalitis.
It is necessary to avoid the loss of time,
considering the prognostic sometimes reserved of certain patients.
References
1.
Özlem Yildiz,
Refik Pul,
Peter Raab,
Christian Hartmann,
Thomas Skripuletz,
Martin Stangel.
Acute hemorrhagic leukoencephalitis (Weston-Hurst syndrome) in a patient with relapse-remitting multiple sclerosis.
J Neuroinflammation.
2015; 12: 175.
2.
Neeta Duggal,
Iftekhar Ahmed,
Nikki Duggal.
Acute Hemorrhagic Leukoencephalitis Associated With Autoimmune Myopathy.
J Vasc Interv Neurol.
2014 Nov; 7(4): 19–22.
3.
Gholam Reza Khademi,
MD,
Mohammad Hasan Aelami,
MD.
Acute Hemorrhagic Leukoencephalitis in Children: A Case Report.
Iran J Med Sci.
2016 May; 41(3): 245–248.
4.
A.
Venkatesan,
A.
R.
Tunkel,
K.
C....