Tigroid pattern of the white matter: a previously unrecognized MR finding in lissencephaly with cerebellar hypoplasia.

Brain MR images of a 14-month-old boy with lissencephaly and cerebellar hypoplasia showed numerous radiating linear structures in the white matter. This finding was identical to the tigroid or leopard-skin pattern that is seen in Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease or metachromatic leukodystrophy and represents the perivascular white matter spared from demyelination. We speculate that mutations of the reelin gene, expressed both in the cortex and in the white matter, may play an important role in its development.