Abstract

E. Itti, K. Huff, M. E. Cornford, L. Itti, K. Poruri, F. S. Mishkin, Postinfectious encephalitis: A coregistered SPECT and magnetic resonance imaging study, Clinical Nuclear Medicine, Vol. 27, No. 2, pp. 129-130, Feb 2002. [2000 impact factor: 0.399] (Cited by 8)

Abstract: An 11-year-old boy was hospitalized for acute headaches, lethargy, and left hemiparesis. A lumbar puncture showed polymorphonuclear leukocytes, but cultures re-mained negative. Flow-attenuated inversion recovery magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed, as was brain SPECT using Tc-99m hexamethylpropylene amineoxime (HMPAO). Anatomic and functional images were coregistered using a unique surface-matching technique. Subsequently, biopsy of a large right frontal lobe lesion was performed. Pathologic examination and electron microscopy showed degeneration of cortical neurons and associated arenavirus-like particles. Whether this caused the disease or represented release by dying neurons of previously present particles remains uncertain.

Keywords: Arenavirus ; Brain SPECT ; Coregistration ; Encephalitis

Themes: Medical Research