MRI findings of acute methanol intoxication: Case report | 2004, Volume 10 - Issue 2

Şebnem ÖRGÜÇ¹, Serap IŞLAK¹, Serdar TARHAN¹, Gönül TEZCAN KELEŞ², Yüksel PABUŞÇU¹

¹Celal Bayar Üniversitesi Radyoloji Anabilim Dalı, MANİSA
²Celal Bayar Üniversitesi Anesteziyoloji ve Reanimasyon Anabilim Dalı, MANİSA

Keywords: magnetic resonance imaging, methanol intoxication, corpus callosum

Abstract

Background: Methyl alcohol is a highly toxic substance, used as an industrial solvent. Acute methanol poisoning causes severe metabolic acidosis and serious neurological sequelae. Objective: We present the evolution of MRI findings of a 39 year old malepatient with accidental methanol intoxication, Findings: lnitially MRI demonstrated necrosis of both putamina, cerebral white matter and involvement of corpus callosum which is not reported in the literature previously. Follow-up MRI in the first month showed contrast enhancement of the lesions as well as cortical involvement which is a very rare finding. Conclusion: MRI is an effective tool to demonstrate the toxic effect of methanol on basal ganglions and cerebral tissue. In this report we report the typicalfindings of methanol intoxication as well as involvement of corpus callosum which is not reported in the literature previously.