MRI Diagnosis and Clinical Significance of Japanese Encephalitis

Objective To study the MR features and clinical significance of Japanese encephalitis (JE). Materials and Methods 14 patients with clinically serum examination proved JE underwent MR imaging, the image features and lesion characteristics were retrospectively analyzed.The MR sequences included T1 fluid attenuated inversion recovery (T1 FLAIR),T2 weighted image,T2 FLAIR and diffusion weighted image (DWI), the location and MRI features of lesions were analyzed. Results MRI revealed lesions only in thalamic in 3 cases.10 cases showed bilateral thalamic involvement combined with other regions,including 6 cases in caudex cerebri,4 in basal ganglia,2 in cerebral cortex,and 1 case in dentate body of cerebellum respectively.The lesions had hypointensity signal on T1 weighted images and hyperintensity signal on T2 weighted images in most patients.On DWI images,hyperintensity signal in 7 cases,isointensity signal in 4 cases,and hypointensity signal in 3 cases,all of the cases had hyperintensity signal on T2 FLAIR images. Hemorrhage were found in 2 cases. Conclusion The JE can invade multiple brain tissue,and the bilateral thalamic involvement is the conspicuous characteristic.T2 FLAIR and DWI have important value in the diagnosis and follow up during treatment, MRI is suggested to be the first choice in diagnosis of JE.