ENHANCED MAGNETIC-RESONANCE-IMAGING OF LEPTOMENINGEAL ANGIOMATOSIS

We present two patients with unilateral occipital gyriform calcificati on and seizures, Gyriform or serpentine calcification as revealed by c omputed tomography (CT) scan is rare and is a characteristic finding o f Sturge-Weber syndrome (SWS) and celiac disease (CD), These patients had neither the facial nevus flammeus or neurological deficits charact eristic of SWS, nor the gastrointestinal symptoms characteristic of CD , CD is often accompanied by cerebral occipital calcification indistin guishable from that of SWS, We demonstrate the presence of cerebral le ptomeningeal angiomatosis (LA) by Gadolinium-DTPA-enhanced magnetic re sonance imaging (MRI) but could not detect LA by either CT scanning or angiography, It has been reported that contrast-enhanced MRI is usefu l to detect LA in SWS, However, we found no reports of enhanced MRI in patients with SWS without facial angioma. If future studies can demon strate the absence of cortical enhancement by contrast-enhanced MRT in CD with cerebral calcifications, enhanced MRI would become an importa nt tool for differentiating CD from SWS. (C) 1997 by Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.