title: Brain damage after treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. A report on 34 patients with special regard to MRI findings.
abstract: In 34 patients treated for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), central nervous system (CNS) damage was assessed by clinical evaluation and brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Twenty-seven of them had been off therapy from 5 to 109 months (median 64 months) while 7 had not completed the maintenance phase of their treatment. All the patients were disease-free when evaluated. None of the 3 patients who showed clinical CNS damage during the follow-up was symptomatic when submitted to MRI, while periventricular hyperintensity in T2-weighted images, suggestive of leukoencephalopathy, was present in 8 of the 34 patients. These subclinical abnormalities appear to be more frequent, transient in nature and treatment-related in patients evaluated shortly after the induction phase. Similar MRI findings seem, on the contrary, to be consequences of the disease on the CNS when appearing in long-term survivors.
authors.affiliation: University Department of Radiation Therapy, Florence, Italy.
authors.forename: G P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Biti
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Magrini
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Villari
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Caramella
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Guazzelli
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rosi
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lippi
mesh_terms: D001925:Brain Damage, Chronic / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007968:Leukoencephalopathy, Progressive Multifocal / Q000473:pathology; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000628:therapy*; D011832:Radiation Injuries / Q000473:pathology