Review of diseases with restricted diffusion on magnetic resonance imaging of the brain

Česká verzia

Authors: Z. Sedláčková ¹; T. Dorňák ²; E. Čecháková ¹; S. Buřval ¹; M. Heřman ¹
Authors place of work: Radiologická klinika LF UP a FN Olomouc ¹; Neurologická klinika LF UP a FN Olomouc ²
Published in the journal: Cesk Slov Neurol N 2018; 81(5): 539-545
Category: Přehledný referát
doi: https://doi.org/10.14735/amcsnn2018539

Summary

There are a lot of diseases that can show restricted diffusion on brain MRI. While it is almost always present in some of them, it can be seen only occasionally in others, in which case it is usually associated with a more severe prognosis. Additional MRI sequences and clinical presentation aid in the differential diagnosis. The aim of this review is to enlist and describe diseases that can present with restricted diffusion on brain MRI. Restricted diffusion is most often found in acute ischemia and it is also typically present in an abscess or empyema as well as in lymphomas and Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease. It can also be found in highly cellular tumors, certain metastases, diffuse axonal injury, acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, encephalitis, posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome, Wernicke’s encephalopathy, Marchiafava-Bignami syndrome, osmotic demyelination syndrome, hypo-/ hyperglycemia, Rathke’s cleft cysts, acute-stage Wilson’s disease, carbon monoxide poisoning, and, rarely, in MS and epilepsy. Restricted diffusion is assessed on diffusion-weighted images (DWI). It can only be valid in the case of a simultaneous finding of a hypersignal area on DWI with a higher b value (usually b = 1,000) and of a hyposignal area in the same location on apparent diffusion coefficient maps.

Key words:
magnetic resonance imaging – diffusion magnetic resonance imaging – brain ischemia – brain abscess – brain neoplasms

The authors declare they have no potential conflicts of interest concerning drugs, products, or services used in the study.

The Editorial Board declares that the manuscript met the ICMJE “uniform requirements” for biomedical papers.

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