title: Fahr disease: use of susceptibility-weighted imaging for diagnostic dilemma with magnetic resonance imaging.
abstract: Fahr disease (FD) is a well-defined rare neurodegenerative disease that is characterized by idiopathic bilateral symmetric extensive striopallidodentate calcifications. The patients may present with diverse manifestations, most commonly movement disorder, cognitive impairment, and ataxia. Computed tomography (CT) is considered to be critical for accurate diagnosis because it is difficult to reliably identify calcifications by routine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) is a relatively new 3D gradient-echo (GE) MR sequence with special phase and magnitude processing. SWI phase images can recognize calcifications definitively with higher sensitivity compared to other MRI sequences. In this article, we present two cases of FD with different manifestations and neuroimaging in different age groups and genders, which were diagnosed by SWI and confirmed with CT, and we discuss the contribution of SWI in the diagnosis of FD. In conclusion, we suggest integrating SWI with MRI protocol to identify calcifications in suspicion of neurodegenerative disorders.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Radiology, 2 Department of Neurology, Sifa University School of Medicine, Izmir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Neslin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sahin
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Radiology, 2 Department of Neurology, Sifa University School of Medicine, Izmir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Aynur
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Solak
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Radiology, 2 Department of Neurology, Sifa University School of Medicine, Izmir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Berhan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Genc
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Radiology, 2 Department of Neurology, Sifa University School of Medicine, Izmir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ugur
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Kulu
keywords: Basal ganglia; Fahr disease (FD); bilateral striopallidodentate calcinosis; computed tomography (CT); susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI)