Acute lacunar infarcts in CLIPPERS: is the chronic infiltrative lymphocytic perivascular disease process to blame?

CLIPPERS (chronic lymphocytic inflammation with pontine perivascular enhancement responsive to steroids) is a recently described chronic inflammatory disorder involving the brainstem with characteristic imaging findings. Since it was originally described in 2002, only a handful of cases have been reported in the literature. We describe two additional cases of CLIPPERS with characteristic clinical and radiological findings. Besides the previously described MR findings, one of the cases also demonstrated multiple basal ganglia lacunar infarcts, a finding which has not been previously reported. We hypothesize that the lacunar infarcts are caused by this chronic infiltrative perivascular disease process.