Elsevier

Clinical Imaging

Volume 26, Issue 1, January–February 2002, Pages 13-17
Clinical Imaging

Dyke–Davidoff–Masson syndrome

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0899-7071(01)00318-7Get rights and content

Abstract

We reported five cases of Dyke–Davidoff–Masson syndrome (DDMS) with different clinical and radiological findings. The evaluated parameters were the location of the lesions, midline structural shift effect, pathological and morphological changes on the ipsilateral calvarium, paranasal sinuses and mesencephalon, presence of compensatory contralateral hypertrophy. With the help of both magnetic resonance (MR) and computerized tomography (CT) images, changing degrees of all the evaluated parameters were observed in all five of our patients. In conclusion, no relationship was found between parenchymal and calvarial changes and between the time after onset of the disease and amount of the morphologic and pathological changes.

Introduction

The causes of cerebral hemiatrophy are multiple, and include both congenital and acquired lesions [1], [2], [3]. In 1933, Dyke, Davidoff and Masson described a series of nine patients with hemiplegia who had cranial asymmetry noted on plain film of the skull [4]. The asymmetry of cerebral hemispheric growth with atrophy on one side, ipsilateral compensatory osseous hypertrophy and hyperpneumatization of the paranasal sinuses and mastoid cells, and contralateral paresis are the underlying pathological processes of Dyke–Davidoff–Masson syndrome (DDMS). Several degrees of hemiparesis, hemiplegia, seizures, mental retardation and facial asymmetry can accompany this syndrome [1], [2], [5]. We reported five cases of DDMS with different clinical and radiological findings.

Section snippets

Materials and methods

Five patients (three male, two female) with symptoms like unilateral hemiparesis, mental retardation, seizures and speech difficulties were evaluated with computerized tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. The patients were 4–38 years old.

The MR images were obtained in three planes with T1-weighted, T2-weighted and proton density spin-echo techniques. CT images were obtained in axial plane.

The evaluated parameters were the location of the lesions, midline structural shift effect,

Results

In three of five patients, symptoms appeared after hemorrhagic disease of newborn, cerebral ischemia and encephalitis. The etiologies of these three DDMS cases were considered as acquired Fig. 1, Fig. 2, Fig. 3. In the remaining two patients, there were no known history of important disease and these cases were considered congenital Fig. 4, Fig. 5.

In all the patients, changing degrees of findings were observed such as: ipsilateral calvarial thickening, hyperpneumatization of the ipsilateral

Discussion

The unique features of DDMS are calvarial thickening at the site of cerebral atrophy and over development of the paranasal sinuses and petromastoid air cells as additional modes of filling space. The causes of DDMS are multiple and include both congenital and acquired lesions [3]. Symptoms and findings appear perinatally or a few months later and intrauterine cause is usually unknown [1]. In these patients, unilateral cerebral blood circulation anomalies were adduced [6]. It was reported that

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