SPECIAL ARTICLE   

The Quarterly Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging 2019 June;63(2):225-6

DOI: 10.23736/S1824-4785.19.03171-6

Copyright © 2019 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

Two-way crossed cerebellar diaschisis in a clinically isolated syndrome suggestive of multiple sclerosis

Giacomo BOFFA ^{1, 2} ✉, Caterina LAPUCCI ^{1, 2}, Silvia D. MORBELLI ^{1, 2}, Flavio M. NOBILI ^{1, 2}

¹ Department of Neuroscience, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics, Maternal and Child Health, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy; ² San Martino Hospital and Institute for Cancer Research and Care, Genoa, Italy

The term diaschisis refers to a neural dysfunction manifesting in anatomically intact, but functionally related, brain regions distant from a primary lesion. Here we report the diaschisis phenomenon as a consequence of a first demyelinating event in the middle and superior cerebellar peduncles in both the ipsilateral cerebellar hemisphere and in the contralateral thalamus and cerebral cortex (two-way crossed cerebellar diaschisis), resulting in the simultaneous disruption of the afferent cortico-ponto-cerebellar pathway and the efferent cerebellar-thalamo-cortical pathway. The use of 18F-FDG-PET could help clarifying in vivo the distant pathophysiological effect of focal lesions in inflammatory diseases such as multiple sclerosis.

KEY WORDS: Brain injuries; Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; Multiple sclerosis