Waragai M, Shinotoh H, Hayashi M, Hattori T
Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, Chiba University, Japan.
J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1997 Jan;62(1):88-91. doi: 10.1136/jnnp.62.1.88.
To investigate MRI abnormalities in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Fourteen patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis underwent MRI of the head and spinal cord using T1 and T2 weighted images. Forty age matched controls (29 with other neurological diseases, 11 with non-neurological diseases) underwent MRI of the cervical spinal cord using T1 and T2 weighted images.
In all the control patients, the signal intensity of the posterior column was equal or slightly hypointense compared with the anterolateral column of the cervical spinal cord on T1 weighted images. However, eight of 14 patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis showed pronounced high signal intensity in the anterolateral column of the spinal cord on T1 weighted MRI, which also disclosed high signal intensity of the intracranial corticospinal tract in two of the 14 patients. T2 weighted MRI demonstrated high signal intensity of the lateral corticospinal tract of the spinal cord in two, high signal intensity of the intracranial corticospinal tract in five, and low signal intensity of the motor cortex in six of the 14 patients. Two of the 14 patients showed no abnormal findings on MRI.
High signal intensity of the anterolateral column of the spinal cord of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a new imaging abnormality and may be useful for the diagnosis of this disease.
研究肌萎缩侧索硬化症患者的MRI异常表现。
14例肌萎缩侧索硬化症患者接受了头部和脊髓的MRI检查，使用了T1加权和T2加权图像。40例年龄匹配的对照者（29例患有其他神经系统疾病，11例患有非神经系统疾病）接受了颈椎脊髓的MRI检查，同样使用T1加权和T2加权图像。
在所有对照患者中，在T1加权图像上，颈椎脊髓后柱的信号强度与前外侧柱相等或略低。然而，14例肌萎缩侧索硬化症患者中有8例在T1加权MRI上脊髓前外侧柱显示出明显的高信号强度，其中14例患者中有2例颅内皮质脊髓束也显示出高信号强度。T2加权MRI显示，14例患者中有2例脊髓外侧皮质脊髓束高信号强度，5例颅内皮质脊髓束高信号强度，6例运动皮质低信号强度。14例患者中有2例MRI未发现异常。
肌萎缩侧索硬化症患者脊髓前外侧柱的高信号强度是一种新的影像学异常表现，可能有助于该疾病的诊断。
