The assessment of mild encephalopathy with a reversible splenial lesion (MERS) using high b-value DWI

• Published in: Medicine (Baltimore) 2019-11, Vol.98 (44), p.e17638-e17638
• Main Authors: Zhuang, Bimei, Han, Chenkun, Hua, Zhipeng, Zhuang, Xiongjie, Han, Haiwei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Brain Diseases - diagnosis; Brain Diseases - diagnostic imaging; Brain Diseases - pathology; Child; China; Corpus Callosum - diagnostic imaging; Corpus Callosum - pathology; Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Female; Humans; Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; Male; Observational Study; Retrospective Studies; Sensitivity and Specificity; Severity of Illness Index; Signal-To-Noise Ratio
• ISSN: 0025-7974; 1536-5964
• DOI: 10.1097/MD.0000000000017638

Mild encephalitis/encephalopathy with a reversible splenial lesion (MERS) was shown to have a transient reduction in diffusion. Such changes would be used as an early detection to reduce excessive treatments and promote recovery without sequelae. The current research evaluated the high b-value (b = 3000 s/mm) diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) assessment in MERS. Sixteen pediatric patients showed MERS used DWI (b = 1000 and 3000 s/mm). To record number of lesions, the signal intensities, signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs), contrast-to-noise ratios (CNRs), contrast ratios (CRs), the apparent diffusion coefficients (ADCs) were measured in the normal parenchyma and lesions. Lesions were more apparent with high b-value. The ADC values and CNR in the lesions and surrounding normal brain parenchyma were relatively low at a high compared to standard b-value DWI (SNR: 144.67 ± 33.03, 85.72 ± 31.50; CNR: 20.82 ± 17.64, 49.62 ± 33.06; for b = 1000 and 3000 s/mm). The CR was significantly higher at a high compared to low b-value DWI (CR: 0.06 ± 0.07 versus 0.40 ± 0.14). High b-value DWI could detect more lesions and could obviously improve the detection of lesions in pediatric patients with MERS.