The importance of MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) for the diagnosis of brainstem infarction.

As experience with it accumulates, high resolution MRI seems more capable of representing morphological alterations of the central nervous system than cranial computer tomography (CCT). The question thus arises whether the detection of brainstem infarctions with MRI might not be easier than with CCT and how the topography of brainstem lesions demonstrated with MRI correlate with clinical symptoms and signs. 16 patients with definite clinical symptoms of brainstem infarction were examined by MRI. The examination took place between the 10th and 14th day after the occurrence of the infarction. Using MRI, we found pathological results in only 8 of these cases. In only 5 of these cases a clear relationship between the neurological picture and the topography of the lesion could be shown. These findings demonstrate that despite the high quality of the MRI images, the clinical examination for symptoms and signs is more important than imaging in the brainstem infarction.