Analysis of the value of MRI in the diagnosis of Marchiafava-Bignami disease

PEI Lei; ZHANG Fa

Abstract：Objective To investigate the clinical manifestations and MRI imaging features of Marchiafava-Bignami disease(MBD).Methods A retrospective study was conducted on 28 patients diagnosed with MBD,including clinical manifestations and imaging examinations and the morphological distribution characteristics and signal performance of the patients'corpus callo-sum area and extra-corpus callosum lesions were analyzed.Results Among the 28 patients,17 had acute MBD,6 had sub-acute MBD,and 5 had chronic MBD.13 of the 17 acute MBD cases showed swelling of the corpus callosum,which was more ob-vious in the knee and body of the corpus callosum,and the lesions were symmetrically distributed on both sides with unclear bor-ders,showing low signal in T1WI and high signal in T2WI and FLAIR sequences.Five cases of subacute MBD showed mild swell-ing of the corpus callosum,and three cases showed a"sandwich sign"change of the corpus callosum in the median sagittal view,i.e.low signal in T1WI and high signal in T2WI in the middle layer of the corpus callosum,with relatively normal signal in the up-per and lower layers.In the chronic type of MBD,5 cases showed reduced volume and mild to moderate atrophy of the corpus cal-losum,with clear boundaries.16 of 28 patients showed DWI high signal,while the rest showed slightly high or equal signal,and ADC values could be decreased or increased.21 of 28 patients showed extra-callosal lesions,mainly in the centrum semiovale and frontoparietal white matter,anterior commissure,and mid-cerebellar peduncle,with signal changes consistent with those in the corpus callosum.The signal changes were consistent with the intracallosal lesions.Conclusion MBD can occur in both the cor-pus callosum and extra-corpus callosum,and the lesions are mostly symmetrically distributed.