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March 30, 2010; 74 (13) Editorials

Are white matter signal abnormalities clinically relevant?

Ronald J. Killiany
First published March 29, 2010, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0b013e3181d6b138
Ronald J. Killiany
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Are white matter signal abnormalities clinically relevant?
Ronald J. Killiany
Neurology Mar 2010, 74 (13) 1014-1015; DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0b013e3181d6b138

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How often have you read, “There are small scattered foci of signal abnormalities (T2 hyperintensities or increased FLAIR signal) in the cerebral white matter indicative of demyelinating disease, chronic white matter ischemia due to microvascular disease, or gliosis from an infectious/inflammatory disease process,” or words just like them in your MRI reports of your elderly patients with cognitive complaints? With this information in hand, do you find yourself struggling to decide how to properly care for your patient: Is this finding clinically relevant? Is it treatable?

We have struggled since at least the early 1900s, when Otto Binswanger described encephalitis chronica progressivea to understand the etiology underlying what we all commonly see reported today on MRI as white matter signal abnormalities. Histologically, Binswanger disease has been associated with changes in the axons and their overlying myelin sheaths resulting in gliosis; this is a consequence of a regional loss or change to the blood supply to the white matter of the brain.1 However, data are scarce that support the notion that the same process could account for the more restricted findings we often see …

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