Abstract #4697

MRI reveals brain ventricle expansion in pediatric patients with acute disseminated encephalomyelitis

Jason Michael Millward¹, Luca Bramé¹, Kevin Rostásy², Matthias Baumann³, Thoralf Niendorf^1,4, and Sonia Waiczies¹

¹Berlin Ultrahigh Field Facility, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Germany, ²Department of Paediatric Neurology, Children's Hospital Datteln, Witten/Herdecke University, Datteln, Germany, ³Division of Paediatric Neurology, Department of Paediatrics I, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria, ⁴Experimental and Clinical Research Center, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany

We show dynamic variations in brain ventricle volume (VV) in longitudinal MRI scans of pediatric patients with acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM). A majority of patients showed decreases in VV directly following the initial clinical event, or following subsequent VV expansion. This suggests that the VV expansion in these patients was not due to irreversible brain atrophy, but rather likely reflected processes associated with acute disease. Calculations of VV (and volumes of other brain structures) done using the automated tool FreeSurfer were significantly affected by gadolinium-based contrast agents; comparing pre- and post-contrast scans should be avoided in longitudinal studies.

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