Brain involvement in haemolytic-uraemic syndrome: MRI features of coagulative necrosis.

We describe radiological demonstration of brain involvement in haemolytic-uraemic syndrome (HUS) in two siblings with a very different clinical course. While the brother presented with a mild, reversible encephalopathy, his sister developed high-signal lesions in the cortex, putamen and caudate nucleus on T1-weighted images, seen as dense areas on CT. Biopsy revealed coagulative necrosis due to microthrombosis without haemorrhage, calcification or infection. These findings suggest a possible prognostic role for MRI in cases of encephalopathy due to HUS.