Document Detail


Cerebral vasculitis: imaging signs revisited.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  17345075     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
Inflammatory stenoses of cerebral blood vessels, although rare in general, are an important cause of cerebral ischemia in younger patients. The diagnosis is often difficult. The first step in the diagnostic process is the identification of brain lesions consistent with cerebral vasculitis. Brain lesions are frequently found in this patient group, especially if modern imaging tools such as diffusion and perfusion-weighted imaging are employed. Although no specific pattern for this entity exists, multiple infarcts of various ages in more than one vascular territory should raise this suspicion. The next step in the imaging of patients with suspected vasculitis is the demonstration of the underlying vascular pathology. MR angiography is the mainstay of investigating patients for intracranial vascular stenoses. However, at 1.5 T it is only diagnostic for stenoses of large brain arteries. Hence, conventional angiography is still required to investigate stenoses of medium and small-sized brain arteries. Recent work suggests that MRI can directly demonstrate mural thickening and contrast enhancement in basal brain arteries, rendering biopsy obsolete in this patient group. A classification for cerebral vasculitis is proposed according to the size of the affected brain vessels, analogous to the pertinent nomenclature of primary systemic vasculitis.
Authors:
Wilhelm Küker
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Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article; Review     Date:  2007-03-08
Journal Detail:
Title:  Neuroradiology     Volume:  49     ISSN:  0028-3940     ISO Abbreviation:  Neuroradiology     Publication Date:  2007 Jun 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2007-05-24     Completed Date:  2007-10-25     Revised Date:  -    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  1302751     Medline TA:  Neuroradiology     Country:  Germany    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  471-9     Citation Subset:  IM    
Affiliation:
Department of Neuroradiology, West Wing, The John Radcliffe Hospital, Headley Way, Oxford, UK. Wilhelm.Kuker@ndm.ox.ac.uk
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Cerebral Angiography*
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging*
Vasculitis, Central Nervous System / classification,  diagnosis*

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