Un état de mal épileptique chez un nourrisson de 2 mois

Clinico-radiological approach to cerebral hemiatrophy

INTRODUCTION

Cerebral hemiatrophy is an uncommon neuroimaging finding of diverse etiologies, conventionally classified into two broad categories: congenital and acquired. The authors propose an alternative pragmatic clinical approach to cerebral hemiatrophy, classifying its diverse etiologies into a single event insult such as an in utero stroke, or a progressive disorder from an inflammatory or neoplastic process, the latter of which needs urgent intervention and will be the focus of our review paper. Illustrative cases will also be presented to facilitate the understanding of the discussed disorders.

CONCLUSION

A systematic approach, linking both clinical and neuroimaging features, is important to facilitate the diagnostic workup of cerebral hemiatrophy. This may potentially help avoid large-scale investigations. Determining the underlying aetiology of cerebral hemiatrophy may impact treatment and prognostication as some conditions such as Rasmussen encephalitis and Parry-Romberg syndrome may benefit from timely implementation of immunomodulatory therapy.

Pre- and postnatal imaging of early cerebral damage in Sturge-Weber syndrome

A case of prenatal diagnosis of Sturge-Weber syndrome associated with polymicrogyria is reported. The diagnosis was based on a unique association with unilateral hemispheric gyriform calcification, focal hemispheric atrophy and white matter changes on prenatal imaging including ultrasound and MRI. Polymicrogyria, which is exceptionally associated with Sturge-Weber syndrome, is suggestive of and reinforces the hypothesis of early impairment of the cerebral microvasculature related to leptomeningeal angioma, which may lead to abnormal cerebral development as early as the second trimester of pregnancy.