No abstract

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:Uremic encephalopathy is a metabolic disorder in patients with renal failure. The purpose of this study was to describe the MR imaging findings of uremic encephalopathy.

Even though BP influences the involvement of the brain stem, involvement of the brain stem is not influential on the prognosis. It seems that the influential factor to prognosis is the reversibility of lesions and hemorrhage.

High-signal-intensity subinsular foci at MR imaging are due to enlarged perivascular spaces. In most cases, these foci can be visualized on thin-section, high-spatial-resolution, coronal T2-weighted images; they should not be mistaken for pathologic conditions when they occur unilaterally.

A 57-year-old woman experienced bilateral acute ischemic optic neuropathy after spine surgery. Routine MR imaging sequence, T2-weighted image, showed subtle high signal intensity on bilateral optic nerves. A contrast-enhanced T1 weighted image showed enhancement along the bilateral optic nerve sheath. Moreover, diffusion-weighted image (DWI) and an apparent diffusion coefficient map showed markedly restricted diffusion on bilateral optic nerves. Although MR findings of T2-weighted and contrast enhanced T1-weighted images may be nonspecific, the DWI finding of cytotoxic edema of bilateral optic nerves will be helpful for the diagnosis of acute ischemic optic neuropathy after spine surgery.