Differential diagnosis of infratentorial atrophies by computed tomography

Computed tomographical findings are documented for 140 patients with different cerebellar atrophic or heredodegenerative processes. There are idiopathic cerebellar atrophies, so called alcoholic and paraneoplastic cerebellar atrophies, cerebellar atrophies associated with nutritional deficiency diseases or intake of diphenylhydantoin. Further, there are patients suffering from Friedreich's ataxia, Nonne-Marie's spastic ataxia, olivo-ponto-cerebellar atrophy and various other diseases. With the aid of CT individual patterns of atrophy can be recognized. The method therefore, helps to distinguish the above mentioned diseases from each other and also distinguishes them from inflammatory, cerebrovascular or neoplastic processes. (orig.)