Diffusion MRI findings in Wilson's disease.

Six patients having Wilson's disease were studied with diffusion MRI in order to characterize cerebral lesions. Diffusion MRI was obtained using the spin-echo, echo-planar sequence with a gradient strength of 30 mT/m. The trace protocol was used in the axial imaging plane. Heavily diffusion-weighted (b=1000s/mm(2)) images, and the ADC (apparent diffusion coefficient) values from automatically generated ADC maps were studied. The ADC values of the normal brain parenchyma were available in 17 age-matched cases for comparison (ADC values, 0.85+/-0.11 x 10(-3)mm(2)/s). In Wilson's disease two distinct diffusion MRI patterns were observed by quantitative evaluations of the ADC maps; cytotoxic edema-like (ADC values, 0.52+/-0.03 x 10(-3)mm(2)/s), and vasogenic edema-like (ADC values, 1.42+/-0.17 x 10(-3)mm(2)/s) patterns. Diffusion imaging appears to be a promising sequence to evaluate the changes in the brain tissue in Wilson's disease at least by revealing two different patterns.