Brain involvement in haemolytic-uraemic syndrome: MRI features of coagulative necrosis

S Schmidt1, F Gudinchet, K Meagher-Villemure

  • 1Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital-CHUV, Lausanne, Switzerland. sabschmidt67@hotmail.com

Neuroradiology
|August 22, 2001
PubMed

We describe radiological demonstration of brain involvement in haemolytic-uraemic syndrome (HUS) in two siblings with a very different clinical course. While the brother presented with a mild, reversible encephalopathy, his sister developed high-signal lesions in the cortex, putamen and caudate nucleus on T1-weighted images, seen as dense areas on CT. Biopsy revealed coagulative necrosis due to microthrombosis without haemorrhage, calcification or infection. These findings suggest a possible prognostic role for MRI in cases of encephalopathy due to HUS.

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