Magnetic resonance imaging diagnosis of the locus of lesions in neuro-ophthalmological diseases

Seven patients with neuro-opthalmological diseases were examined by X-ray computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and the application of the latter in these diseases was studied. The cases included one each of rhinogenous optic neuropathy with mucocele in the ethnoid sinus, pituitary adenoma, multiple sclerosis, multiple cerebral infarction, hemangioma in the pontine region, one-and-a-half syndrome, and oculomotor nerve palsy with midbrain infarction. We were able to diagnose the pituitary adenoma and the multiple cerebral infarction by both MRI and CT, but in the other cases the lesions could not be detected by CT and some smaller lesions were visualized by MRI alone. These smaller lesions were in the paranasal sinus and brain stem, where CT diagnosis is difficult because of bone artifacts. The absence of bone artifacts was one of the advantages of MRI as evaluated in this study. Poor demonstration of calcification and bones, however, seemed to be a weak point. Our study showed MRI to be effective in examining neuro-ophthalmological diseases. (author)