The clinical phenotype and MRI manifestations of neurosyphilis / 实用放射学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To analyze the clinical and MRI manifestations of neurosyphilis in order to improve the recognition and di‐agnosis of the disease .Methods The MRI and clinical data of 11 patients with neurosyphilis confirmed in clinic were collected .The patients were categorized into different phenotypic types according to the clinical manifestations ,and the MRI manifestations were al‐so analyzed .Results 5 patients with parenchymal types showed cerebral atrophy .3 patients with meningovascular types showed cer‐ebral infarction .1 patient with encephalitis showed brain signal changes and meningeal enhancement .1 patient without symptom showed signal changes in brain parenchyma and mild enhancement .1 patient of myelopathic type showed signal changes of thoracic spinal cord without enhancement .Conclusion There is an overlap of the MRI findings of neurosyphilis in different clinical pheno‐types ,exhibiting no specifity .Neurosyphilis can be diagnosed when the young patient is manifested as cerebral atrophy ,infarction , MR signal intensity abnormality of cerebral parenchyma and spinal cord ,as well as meningeal enhancement .