EEG coherence for a patient with Marchiafava-Bignami disease

We evaluated a 39-year-old chronic alcoholic man with acute multiple cognitive impairment and callosal lesion seen in MRI, diagnosed as Marchiafava-Bignami disease (MBD), using analysis of electroencephalography (EEG) coherence. Three EEG sessions were recorded in the first week, the second and eighth month after disease onset in the MBD patient. Inter-hemispheric coherence (IhC), parasagittal coherence (PsC) and spatially averaged coherence (SAC) were computed. The results were compared with normative data from 30 age-matched healthy subjects. Mean values for IhC, PsC and SAC were significantly decreased during the acute stage of the disease (P < 0.01). The IhC values remained low (P < 0.01), however, PsC and SAC values rebounded in follow-up study. The IhC and SAC values were lowest in the frontal region, consistent with the main pathological involvement in the anterior two-thirds of the corpus callosum and early involvement of frontal cortex. In conclusion, MBD may manifest as a cerebral-disconnection state, which can be quantified using EEG-coherence analysis. EEG-coherence may serve as a useful tool for MBD diagnosis and evaluation.