Type:
Educational Exhibit
Keywords:
Neuroradiology brain, Head and neck, Anatomy, MR, MR-Diffusion/Perfusion, CT, Diagnostic procedure, Imaging sequences, Localisation, Infection, Inflammation, Ischaemia / Infarction
Authors:
S. Tapia Concha, H. Vidal Trueba, E. M. Marco De Lucas, N. Valle, S. Sánchez Bernal, E. Ruiz Perez; Santander/ES
DOI:
10.1594/ecr2013/C-0567
Background
•Rhombencephalitis refers to inflammatory diseases affecting the hindbrain (brainstem and cerebellum) and has a wide variety of etiologies.•A proper diagnosis is mandatory in order to avoid potentially severe and life threatening complications.•An accurate imaging differential diagnosis is crucial in the management of these patients.•Certain clinical,
CSF,
and radiologic characteristics that are usually seen in some of these etiologies could guide us in the first approach to the etiologic diagnosis.
•
Diffuse lesion: multiple or extensive hyper T2 lesion affecting >1/2 brain stem in the axial plane or several zones extending in cranio-caudal direction.•This group includes the involvement of long axonal tracts like the corticospinal tract (HCE).•The most common cause is infectious,
Listeria being the most common one,
followed by Tuberculosis,
Lyme and viruses.•To achieve the correct diagnosis is necessary to correlate the MRI findings with age,
medical history and analysis of CSF and other tests.