MAGNETIC-RESONANCE BRAIN IMAGING LACKS SENSITIVITY FOR AIDS-ASSOCIATED CYTOMEGALOVIRUS ENCEPHALITIS

Six patients are presented who died with active cytomegalovirus (CMV) encephalitis in whom brain MR scans within 25 days of death failed to reveal distinctive findings suggesting the diagnosis of CMV encephalit is. While MR scanning is crucial to evulation of AIDS patients develop ing neurologic complications, it is not sensitive to the presence of C MV encephalitis even when it is quite severe. The diagnosis of CMV enc ephalitis during life rests on characteristic clinical findings suppor ted by typical laboratory measures including the presence of CMV DNA i n cerebrospinal fluid as detected by polymerase chain reaction.