[Speech disturbance following myelography with iohexol: a case report]

Iohexol (Omnipaque) is a non-ionic contrast media for neuroradiology, which causes the neurological complications on rare occasions. A 63-year-old, righthanded female suffered from dysphemia 12 hours after myelography with iohexol via lumbar puncture. The initial cerebral computed tomography scan revealed the generalized contrast media uptake into the cisterns, which was typical to the finding after intrathecal iohexol injection. Although the cerebral magnetic resonance (MR) imaging 7 days after attack also demonstrated no abnormal finding, the electrical encephalogram revealed the sporadic sharp wave activity. Her nonfluent speech deficit had recovered gradually, however, the neurogenic stuttering was still remained. Some literatures previously reported the cases with speech deficits as complications of metrizamide myelography, whereas, a case manifesting as speech disturbance following myelography with iohexol has been not reported. Metrizamide is also a non-ionic agent and had a lower incidence of speech disturbance, which is supposed to be associated with a focal superficial neurotoxic reaction of the cerebrum. Therefore, our unfortunate case suggests that iohexol could rarely cause speech disturbance such as metrizamide.