title: Symptoms of degeneration of the pyramidal tracts in conventional magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion tensor imaging in a young woman with primary lateral sclerosis.
abstract: Primary lateral sclerosis (PLS) is one of the forms of motor neuron disease (MND), affecting only upper motor neurons. The diagnosis of PLS should be made on different diagnostic criteria, for example, Pringle or Gordon, but it is usually a diagnosis of exclusion. There are no characteristic findings in standard laboratory and electrophysiological assessment. We present details of a 31-year-old woman who had suffered from progressive paraparesis with right-side predominance. Conventional MRI of brain and spinal cord and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) studies showed Hyperintense lesions in the upper part of the cervical spinal cord at the level C1 in lateral funicules, in the medulla oblongata at the pyramidal decussation and in the midbrain. Brain DTI revealed changes along the corticospinal tracts on fractional anisotropy (FA) maps. MRI of the thoracic spinal cord showed in T2-weighted images hyperintensive regions in the course of the lateral corticospinal tracts. This aided in PLS recognition.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Budrewicz
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Szewczyk
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Slotwinski
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Interventional Radiology and Neuroradiology, Wroclaw Medical University, Wroclaw, Poland.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Koszewicz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D016472:Motor Neuron Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D009046:Motor Neurons / Q000473:pathology; D011712:Pyramidal Tracts / Q000473:pathology*; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000473:pathology*