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Acquired Inflammatory White Matter Diseases

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Pediatric Neuroradiology

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Abstract

During the last decades, several different classifications were proposed to define white matter diseases. However, none proved to be completely satisfactory. Therefore, even now, some entities have clinical significance but no specific pathological, biochemical, or radiological support (i.e., Schilder’s myelinoclastic diffuse sclerosis), and the reverse is true with others. Furthermore, several diseases, although not primitively categorized as inflammatory white matter disorders, present mixed or poorly defined borders; such is the case of X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy, a genetically defined metabolic disorder which presents a constant and often dramatic white matter inflammatory component. White matter inflammation is also constant in some acquired metabolic diseases (i.e., Wernicke’s encephalopathy). Discussion is also progressing on review of single diseases which were apparently already well defined: are Devic’s neuromyelitis optica, Balò’s concentric sclerosis, and Schilder’s myelinoclastic diffuse sclerosis specific entities? Are they variants of multiple sclerosis (MS)? Or else, do they simply represent occasional combinations of some of the signs, symptoms, and findings that are common in pediatric MS?

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy

    Massimo Gallucci MD (Professor of Radiology)

  2. Department of Radiology, ITAB-University of Chieti, Chieti, Italy

    Massimo Caulo MD

  3. Department of Pediatric Neuroradiology, G. Gaslini Children’s Research Hospital, Genoa, Italy

    Paolo Tortori-Donati MD (Head)

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  1. Massimo Gallucci MD
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  2. Massimo Caulo MD
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  3. Paolo Tortori-Donati MD
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Gallucci, M., Caulo, M., Tortori-Donati, P. (2005). Acquired Inflammatory White Matter Diseases. In: Pediatric Neuroradiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-26398-5_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-26398-5_15

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