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| MRI appearances of the early period of tuberculous meningitis in children |
| HE Si-ping, CHEN Hua, WANG Hai, WANG Sheng, LUO Wei-hua |
| Department of Radiology, Hunan Provincial Children’s Hospital, Changsha 410007, China |
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Abstract Objective: To improve identification of MRI appearances in the early stage of tuberculous meningitis in children. Methods: MRI appearances of 24 cases with early stage of tuberculous meningitis were retrospectively analyzed. All patients had conventional MRI and contrast-enhanced T1WI scans by Siemens Avanto 1.5 Tesla scanner. Four cases had conventional contrast-enhanced FLAIR scans. Results: Eight cases showed widening of cerebral sulci or cerebral fissure slightly widened and deepened and 16 cases had no abnormality on MRI plain scan. Twenty cases with diffuse linear enhancement of the meninges and 4 cases had no abnormal enhancement on MRI contrast-enhanced T1WI scans. Contrast-enhanced FLAIR images were superior to contrast-enhanced T1WI in the delection of meningeal lesions in 4 cases. All cases had no abnormal enhancement in the brain parenchyma. Conclusion: MRI contrast-enhanced scanning is an effective approach to detect the early period of tuberculous meningitis in the early stage, the MRI features of the early period of tuberculous meningitis are diffuse linear enhancement of the meninges, recognize the MRI characteristics is important in clinical diagnosis.
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Received: 18 April 2014
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2014, Vol. 25 
