CT and MRI in acute hemorrhagic stroke

We report the case of a woman presenting with an acute onset of hemiplegia. MRI was performed and showed a hyperintense mass on diffusion-weighted ima ging, with areas of high signal intensity on T2* imaging and T2/PD imaging. T1-weighted imaging showed a more inhomogeneous lesion with a central isoi ntense part corresponding to the acute clot, as well as a peripheral cresce nt of hypointense plasma; since another mass lesion could not be acutely ex cluded, computed tomography was performed immediately afterwards, showing a hyperdense hematoma. The patient was taken to the neurosurgical operating theater, where she underwent decompressive craniotomy and evacuation of the hematoma. Copyright (C) 2000 S. Karger AG. Basel.