Cerebral hyperperfusion in a patient with eclampsia with perfusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging

The patient was a 25-year-old Japanese woman with postpartum eclampsia, in whom magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed ten hours after convulsion. The patient improved within three days. Diffusion-weighted images showed a high apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), and perfusion-weighted images obtained by the multi-slice flow-sensitive alternating inversion recovery (FAIR) method showed hyperperfusion, which was suggestive of vasogenic edema, on the parietal and occipital subcortical white matter, corresponding with transient hyperintensities on T2-weighted images. MR angiography (MRA) revealed no signs of vasospasm. These findings suggested hyperperfusion-induced vasogenic edema without cerebrovascular spastic change in the early stage of eclampsia. The FAIR method is considered a useful technique for perfusion-weighted MRI, especially useful to evaluate the cerebral perfusion of emergency patients such as those with eclampsia.