Herpes Encephalitis: T2-weighted MR -- Slice #13
Tour 1: Next/Previous/Start: At this slightly higher level, you can see the most inflamed portion of the temporal lobe, involving the uncus and adjacent parahippocampal gyrus, in brightest white on MR and on perfusion SPECT. This target of HSV encephalitis can become so swollen that it causes midbrain compression, one of the reasons that HSV is the most common cause of fatal encephalitis in humans. When this patient became ill, he experienced the sensation of odd smells, particularly of burning rubber or of hot metal. The uncus and surrounding temporal lobe structures mediate the sense of smell, and, as Hughlings Jackson described in 1890, these structures can produce such symptoms when irritated. (Jackson JH and Beevor CE. Brain 12:346-57).
[Home][Help][Clinical][Tour 1] Slice 13
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Keith A. Johnson (keith@bwh.harvard.edu), J. Alex Becker (jabecker@mit.edu)