Symmetric bilateral caudate, hippocampal, cerebellar, and subcortical white matter MRI abnormalities in an adult patient with heat stroke.

Heat stroke is the end result of excess heat stress and results in multiorgan dysfunction with a propensity for central nervous system (CNS) injury. Damage to the CNS appears to be the result of multiple mechanisms, including direct heat damage and the initiation of a sepsis-type syndrome. Only a few scattered case reports exist in the literature that document CNS damage via imaging. We present a case with symmetric bilateral magnetic resonance findings in the caudate nuclei, subcortical white matter, hippocampi, and cerebellum. To our knowledge, this is the first case to report symmetric bilateral caudate abnormality and bilateral hippocampal enhancement.