Involvement of the central nervous system in rheumatoid arthritis: its clinical manifestations and analysis by magnetic resonance imaging.

A rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patient showed high signal intensity in the subcortical region of the frontal and occipital lobes on T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Histopathological examination in the autopsy specimen revealed severe systemic vasculitis. Additional radiological and laboratory studies revealed that transient cerebral ischemia induced by vasculitis occurred in this patient.