Differentiation of dys- and demyelination using diffusional anisotropy

doi:10.1016/S0887-8994(96)00249-4

Pediatric Neurology

Volume 16, Issue 1, January 1997, Pages 63-66

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0887-8994(96)00249-4 Get rights and content

Abstract

We attempted differential diagnosis of dysmyelination and demyelination in childhood using magnetic resonance diffusion weighted imaging. Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease, one of the dysmyelination disorders, demonstrated diffuse high intensity of the cerebral white matter on T₂-weighted images, which demonstrated diffusional anisotropy on diffusion weighted images. On the other hand, high intensity lesions on T₂-weighted images in Krabbe disease, one of the demyelination disorders, lost diffusional anisotropy. Another demyelination disorder, Alexander disease-related disorder, also lost its diffusional anisotropy. In contrast to relatively high signal of the lesions on diffusion-weighted images in Krabbe disease (high signal type), the lesions in Alexander disease-related disorder showed low signal on diffusion-weighted images (low signal type). These results suggest that diffusion-weighted images will be clinically useful to differentiate dysmyelination from demyelination; both of them demonstrate similar high intensity lesions of the white matter on T₂-weighted images.

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^☆: This study was supported in part by a Research Grant No. (6B-2) for Nervous and Mental Disorders from the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

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Case reportDifferentiation of dys- and demyelination using diffusional anisotropy☆

Abstract

Brain Dev

Brain Res

Brain Dev

NMR demonstration of cerebral abnormalities: Comparison with CT

AJR

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging in white matter disease of the brain using spin-echo sequences

J Comput Assist Tomogr

Case report
Differentiation of dys- and demyelination using diffusional anisotropy☆