Vanishing White Matter Disease With EIF2B2 c.254 >A Variant: Mild Clinical and MRI Findings

Typical MRI findings of vanishing white matter disease (VWM) include diffuse white matter lesions with cystic degeneration. However, mild cases may lack these typical features, posing diagnostic challenges.

We describe 2 of 3 individuals carrying the homozygous c.254T >A variant in EIF2B2 identified at our hospital, excluding 1 previously reported case.¹ Genetic analyses were performed using whole-genome sequence or whole-exome sequence analysis, and detected variants were confirmed by direct nucleotide sequence analysis. Brain MRI findings and clinical features were reviewed for the 2 individuals along with other cases in the literature with the same variant.

A 69-year-old woman presented with recurrent transient dizziness and secondary amenorrhea. MRI of the brain revealed small T2-hyperintense lesions confined to the subcortical white matter with hyperintensities on diffusion-weighted images and mildly elevated apparent diffusion coefficient values. A 28-year-old woman presented with transient dizziness and secondary amenorrhea. MRI of the brain showed mild T2-hyperintense lesions in the cerebral white matter with frontal predominance.

This report highlights the clinically mild cases of VWM with subtle abnormalities on brain MRI who had the homozygous c.254T >A in EIF2B2, further expanding the clinical spectrum of VWM and underscoring the importance of genetic assessments in the diagnosis of individuals with mild clinical and MRI findings.