Susceptibility-weighted imaging in patient with consciousness disturbance after traffic accident

Both diffuse axonal injury (DAI) and fat embolism syndrome could be the cause of altered consciousness in patients who suffered from traffic accident. In some situations, distinguishing DAI from fat embolism syndrome may be difficult because routine brain imaging could not detect the lesions. Susceptibility weighted imaging is sensitive to detect petechial hemorrhages in cerebral fat embolism and DAI. The areas most vulnerable to DAI are the cerebral gray-white matter junction, splenium of the corpus callosum, and dorsolateral brainstem. However, cerebral and cerebellar white matter and splenium of corpus callosum are the areas most vulnerable to cerebral fat embolism. In additional to history, clinical manifestation, and prognosis, evaluating the distribution of hypointense lesions in susceptibility-weighted imaging could be useful to differentiate these 2 conditions.