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AJNR - American Journal of Neuroradiology

Published ahead of print on June 26, 2008
doi: 10.3174/ajnr.A1184

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American Journal of Neuroradiology 29:1795-1798, October 2008
© 2008 American Society of Neuroradiology

PEDIATRICS

Susceptibility-Weighted Imaging Findings of Cortical Laminar Necrosis in Pediatric Patients

T. Niwa^a, N. Aida^a, A. Shishikura^a, K. Fujita^a and T. Inoue^b

^a Department of Radiology, Kanagawa Children's Medical Center, Yokohama, Japan
^b Department of Radiology, Yokohama City University School of Medicine, Yokohama, Japan

Please address correspondence to Tetsu Niwa, MD, Department of Radiology, Kanagawa Children's Medical Center, 2-138-4 Mutsukawa, Minami-ku, Yokohama, 232-8555, Japan; e-mail: tniwa{at}kcmc.jp

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: MR susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) is a highly sensitive technique for detection of hemorrhage, but its utility in the evaluation of children with laminar necrosis is not yet known. We assessed whether cortical laminar necrosis in pediatric patients contains hemorrhage on SWI.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: "Cortical laminar necrosis" was defined as a hyperintense cortical lesion on T1-weighted imaging in the subacute or chronic phase of brain damage in some foci involving the cerebral cortex and white matter such as hypoxic-ischemic incidents and encephalopathy. Medical records, CT, and MR images were retrospectively analyzed. Fifteen patients (7 boys, 8 girls; age range, 0–13 years) were included. The areas of signal-intensity loss on SWI that were considered to be hemorrhage were correlated with the laminar necrosis. CT was assessed to correlate with the presence of calcification at the location of the signal-intensity loss on SWI. To assess appearance or signal-intensity changes of hemorrhage in the laminar necrosis, follow-up SWI was performed.

RESULTS: The causes of laminar necrosis included infarction in 4 patients, ischemic changes from Moyamoya disease in 2, meningoencephalitis in 2, hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy in 2, shaken baby syndrome in 1, encephalopathy from severe infection in 1, status epilepticus in 1, citrullinemia in 1, and brain injury with posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome in 1. T1-weighted imaging showed focal laminar necrosis in 8, multifocal laminar necrosis in 2, and diffuse laminar necrosis in 5. SWI findings correlated with laminar necrosis included the following: no hemorrhage in 13 patients (80.0%), dotted hemorrhage in 2 (13.3%), and laminar hemorrhage in 1 (6.7%). Follow-up SWI performed in 6 patients showed no additional hemorrhage.

CONCLUSION: Most areas of cortical laminar necrosis in pediatric patients showed no hemorrhage on SWI.