[The role of magnetic resonance imaging in the diagnosis of Hallervorden-Spatz disease].

A mentally-retarded 21-year-old female with narrowing of the visual field was admitted to our hospital because of dystonia in the body and extremities which appeared 6 months before and was gradually exacerbating. On admission, torsion dystonia, pyramidal tract sign, and retinitis pigmentosa with optic atrophy, urinary incontinence, hyperhidrosis and insomnia were noted. On the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, she achieved less than 60 for verbal-IQ. Laboratory tests including serum copper and ceruloplasmin, were all normal. A computed tomography of the brain showed small hyperdense spot in the globus pallidus on the both sides. There was neither cortical atropy nor ventricular dilatation. A Magnetic Resonance Imaging was obtained using both moderate-field (0.5 Tesla) and high-field (1.5 Tesla) superconducting MR systems. T2-weighted spin echo images demonstrated markedly decreased signal intensity area restricted in the globus pallidus and substantia nigra on both system. Moreover, in the center of the globus pallidus, a small high signal spot was seen ("eye-of the-tiger" sign coined by Sethi et al). There was no abnormal signal in the putamen, caudate nucleus, red nucleus, and dentate nucleus. On the other hand, T1-weighted inversion recovery images were not remarkable. These striking low attenuation on T2-weighted findings suggests an increased iron deposition limited to the globus pallidus and substantia nigra which is characteristic of Hallervorden-Spatz disease/syndrome (H-S). Moreover, "eye-of-the-tiger" sign on T2-weighted MR images in the globus pallidus is previously described in H-S.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)