Clinical and imageological features of delayed encephalopathy caused by pituitrin / 临床神经病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the clinical and imageological features of pituitrin-induced delayed encephalopathy. Methods Clinical data of 8 patients with delayed encephalopathy caused by pituitrin were analyzed retrospectively. Results All of the 8 patients presented diffent degree neuropsychic symptoms at 4～12 d after stop using the pituitrin. The extrapyramidal and psychiatric symptoms of the cases were found,such as hypermyotonia(8 cases),hypokinesia(6 cases),extremity buffeting(3 cases),emotional and behavior disorder(6 cases). The 8 cases with EEG examination showed:there were gently to midrange widespread dysfunction in 4 cases,severe widespread dysfunction in 1 case. The levels of serum Na+ in 5 cases were decrease slightly. The 8 cases with brain MRI examination showed that the abnormal signals were mainly located in lentiform nucleus and head of caudate nucleus with long T1 and T2-weighted images,and including thalamus or midbrain abnormalities signal in 1 case,respectively. Conclusions The manifestations of pituitrin-induced delayed encephalopathy are extrapyramidal symptoms and cerebral disorders. The characteristics of brain MRI are abnormal signals in lentiform nucleus and head of caudate nucleus with long T1 and T2-weighted images. The supposed pathogenesis may be nerve necrosis induced by Charcot's artery spasm and hyponatremia.