SEQUENTIAL MAGNETIC-RESONANCE FEATURES OF ENCEPHALOPATHY INDUCED BY SYSTEMIC MASTOCYTOSIS

A 37-year-old man developed encephalopathy with prominent eosinophilia . Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed multiple T2-weighted high signal intensity lesions with dimeglumine gadopentetate (Gd-DTPA) enha ncement on T1-weighted images, which were distributed in the cerebral cortex, thalamus, deep white matter and cerebellum. He was diagnosed a s having systemic mastocytosis on the basis of proliferating mast cell s in the bone marrow and peripheral eosinophilia. Following steroid ad ministration, there was a rapid improvement of his symptoms and labora tory data. To our knowledge, this was the first reported case of syste mic mastocytosis provoking encephalopathy with serial MRI findings.