Alcohol Induced Brain Changes

Vivek Kasana, S Rajesh, Cyriac Abby Philips

February 16, 2015

A 43 year old man, consuming 4.2 to 5.6 ounces of local hard liquor per day for 18 years presented to the emergency room in a comatose state. This presentation was preceded by one day of binge drinking followed by multiple convulsive episodes in the form of generalized tonic clonic seizures. In the post-ictal phase, the patient had involuntary movements such as athetosis of both upper limbs and tonic closure of both eyes intermittently. A computed tomography of the brain obtained at the time did not reveal any organic lesions. On further magnetic resonance imaging, axial T2 weighted sequences showed hyperintense signal in the corpus callosum (red arrow) and on sagittal section, showed hyperintense signal involving central layers of corpus callosum in region of splenium with sparing of dorsal and ventral layers producing a characteristic sign (yellow arrow).

Vivek Kasana, Senior Fellow, Department of Radiology, Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, New Delhi, India

S Rajesh, Assistant Professor, Department of Interventional Radiology, Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, New Delhi, India

Cyriac Abby Philips, Senior Fellow, Department of Hepatology and Transplant Medicine, Department of Radiology, Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, New Delhi, India