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Updated: Jun 13, 2026
Brain Infarct Segmentation and Registration on MRI or CT for Lesion-symptom Mapping
Published on: September 25, 2019
Diffusion weighted imaging findings in the acute lateral medullary infarction
Min-Jung Seo1, Sook Young Roh, Yu-Suck Kyun
1Department of Neurology, Pundang Jesaeng General Hospital, Seongnam, Korea.
Background And Purpose:
Negative findings on diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) does not exclude the possibility of brainstem infarction, particularly in the acute stage of medullary lesion. Our aim was to investigate the false-negative rate of DWI in patients with acute lateral medullary infarction.
Methods:
We applied DWI to 26 patients with a clinical diagnosis of lateral medullary infarction within 72 h of the onset. We assessed relationships between initial DWI findings and time-to-MRI (the time between onset of symptoms and initial DWI), number of clinical symptoms and signs, and final lesion volume.
Results:
There were 8 cases (31%) of false negatives in the initial DWI results. The occurrence of false-negative DWI findings decreased significantly as the time-to-MRI increased (P=0.014). However, the false-negative rate was not significantly correlated with the number of clinical symptoms and signs or the final lesion volume.
Conclusions:
The diagnosis of lateral medullary infarction should not be ruled out on the basis of early negative DWI. To confirm the lesion, follow-up DWI or further MRI should be performed in cases with early negative DWI results.
