title: [A case report of serial MRI findings of cerebral fat embolism].
abstract: A 16-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital because of the motorbike accident On admission, her consciousness was alert, and she had lower lip laceration and left femur open wound. Brain CT showed no abnormality, but chest CT revealed slight left lungs sprain and her left femur was fractured in the radiograph. Debridement and the art of the steel wire pulling of the left femur fracture part were enforced under general anesthesia about two hours coming to a hospital later. Her awaking from anesthetizing after the operation was delayed, and the consciousness level gradually decreased. Head MRI diffusion weighted image (DWI) after about 36 hours coming to a hospital showed diffuse high signal region centering on the cerebral white matter. We diagnosed her as having cerebral fat embolism based on clinical course and MRI findings. DWI abnormal signals disappeared in three weeks and the symptoms had improved gradually. It is thought that head MRI-DWI is useful to diagnose and evaluate the pathophysiology of cerebral fat embolism.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Stroke Center, Saiseikai Kumamoto Hospital.
authors.forename: Shoji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Honda
authors.forename: Yuichiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Inatomi
authors.forename: Toshiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yonehara
authors.forename: Yoichiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hashimoto
authors.forename: Teruyuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hirano
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Uchino
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic; D000293:Adolescent; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D004620:Embolism, Fat / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020766:Intracranial Embolism / Q000175:diagnosis*