A Case of Metronidazole-Induced Encephalopathy: Atypical Involvement of the Brain on MRI

ABSTRACT

Metronidazole is an antimicrobial agent widely used for the treatment of anaerobic infection or antibiotics-associated diarrhea. It is generally thought to be safe, but can induce reversible toxic encephalopathy in the case of excessive or cumulative over-dose. Metronidazole-induced encephalopathy generally demonstrates the characteristic features of typical lesion location and bilaterality on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We report a case of metronidazole-induced encephalopathy with the involvement of asymmetric white matter. To our knowledge, only a few cases have been reported with respect to white matter lesion characteristics on MRI with diffusion-weighted images.