Radiographical investigations of organic lesions of the hypothalamus in patients suffering from neurogenic pulmonary edema due to serious intracranial diseases: relationship between radiographical findings and outcome of patients suffering from neurogenic pulmonary edema.

Radiographical investigations of the hypothalamus by computerized tomography (CT) have rarely been performed despite the fact that the damage to the hypothalamus owing to serious intracranial organic diseases may cause neurogenic pulmonary edema (NPE). We presented 22 consecutive cases of patients suffering from NPE caused by serious intracranial organic diseases and investigated the relationship between NPE and abnormal radiographical findings of the hypothalamus. In 11 cases, organic lesions were noted in the hypothalami and 10 of these patients died of NPE (91.0%). In contrast, of the remaining 11 cases without significant radiographical findings of organic lesions in the hypothalami, only 2 patients were lost (18.2%). In general, various factors including systemic ones are considered to contribute to the prognosis of the patients suffering NPEs caused by serious intracranial diseases. It was concluded that hypothalamic damage was not always found by radiograph in patients with NPE due to critical intracranial diseases, but once abnormal findings in their hypothalamus of these patients were noted, their prognosis would become significantly poor (p < 0.05).