Methanol poisoning: brain computed tomography scan findings in four patients.

Methanol, through its chief metabolite, formate, causes irreversible neurological damage. Methanol intoxication produces classic neuropathological changes and characteristic imaging findings. Computed tomography was performed on four patients who presented with a history of methanol poisoning. Prominent, hypodense lesions in the lentiform nuclei and peripheral white matter, sometimes with haemorrhage, were the characteristic imaging findings in the present patients. It was noted that the severity and extent of necrosis of the lentiform nuclei do not necessarily correlate with the clinical outcome.