Journal of the neurological sciences
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Blood-brain-barrier dysfunction is well known to accompany hypertensive posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES) and is considered as the culprit of vasogenic edema and cerebral hemorrhage observed as part of this syndrome. An 84-year-old female was admitted with a diagnosis of PRES in the setting of malignant hypertension. The clinical course was further complicated by ischemic stroke and seizures. ⋯ These findings suggestive of increased permeability were not only confined to the blood-brain-barrier, but also involved the blood-retina-barrier interface. Our observations suggest that pathologic conditions that disrupt the integrity of blood-brain-barrier might concomitantly affect retinal microcirculation, which highly resembles cerebral microcirculation both anatomically and functionally. Imaging modalities sensitive for detection of blood-brain-barrier dysfunction, such as contrast enhanced FLAIR, might be helpful in identifying these abnormalities.
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While disease categories (i.e. clinical phenotypes) of multiple sclerosis (MS) are established, there remains MRI heterogeneity among patients within those definitions. MRI-defined lesions and atrophy show only moderate inter-correlations, suggesting that they represent partly different processes in MS. We assessed the ability of MRI-based categorization of cerebral lesions and atrophy in individual patients to identify distinct phenotypes. ⋯ We described MRI-categorization based on the relationship between lesions and atrophy in individual patients to identify four phenotypes in MS. Most patients have congruent extremes related to the degree of lesions and atrophy. However, many have a dissociation. Longitudinal studies will help define the stability of these patterns and their role in risk stratification.