title: Central pontine lesions observed with MRI in four diabetic patients.
abstract: We report four diabetic patients with a central pontine lesion on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). All patients also had hypertension, diabetic neuropathy and nephropathy, and three had chronic hepatitis C. Their neurological symptoms were disproportionately mild compared with the MRI features, which were of high intensity on T2-weighted images, but were less prominent on T1- and diffusion-weighted images. A subclinical pontine lesion was found in two patients who had undergone MRI previously. We consider that diabetes mellitus is an important factor for developing a pontine lesion with or without symptoms, probably in association with hepato-renal problems and hypertension.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Showa University School of Medicine, Tokyo. h_ichikawa0527@yahoo.co.jp
authors.forename: Hiroo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ichikawa
authors.forename: Hidetomo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Murakami
authors.forename: Hirotaka
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Katoh
authors.forename: Soutaro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hieda
authors.forename: Mitsuru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kawamura
mesh_terms: D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000503:physiopathology; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017590:Myelinolysis, Central Pontine / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012307:Risk Factors