title: [Magnetic resonance imaging characteristics of spinal cord lesions and brain abnormalities in Chinese patients with neuromyelitis optica].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To analyze the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) characteristics of neuromyelitis optica (NMO) in Chinese patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  We retrospectively reviewed the MRI films of 61 patients with NMO (including 57 female and 4 male patients) admitted in our department.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of these patients, 39 (79.6%) showed positivity for serum aquaporin-4 (AQP4) antibody. On MRI, 18 patients showed involvement of the cervical cord alone, 27 had both cervical and thoracic segment involvement, and 16 displayed thoracic segment involvement. The lesions appeared linear (9 cases), diffuse (23 cases), or both (29 cases), mostly located axially with occasional lateral distribution. Thirty-nine of the 61 patients (63.9%) had brain abnormalities, 31 presented with supratentorial lesions (mostly in the juxtacortical, subcortical, deep white matter and lateral ventricle-adjacent regions, n=27), 15 showed infratentorial lesions (mostly in the preiaqueduct-fourth ventricular-central canal, n=13), and 7 had supra- and infratentorial lesions simultaneously.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  NMO has complex MRI presentation, and linear lesions in the spinal cord and preiaqueduct-fourth ventricular-central canal lesions, where AQP4 is high expressed, can be characteristic for NMO. MRI and AQP4 antibody detection are suggested for suspected cases for early diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, General Hospital of PLA, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: De-hui
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.forename: Wei-ping
authors.initials: WP
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D051401:Aquaporin 4 / Q000276:immunology; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009471:Neuromyelitis Optica / Q000473:pathology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: C496030:AQP4 protein, human; D051401:Aquaporin 4