Computerized Tomography in Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy

Abstract

Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) is an uncommon, subacute demyelinating disorder of the central nervous system (CNS) of viral cause, which affects immunologically compromised patients. The diagnosis rests on the histopathologic examination of CNS tissue, since laboratory methods yield consistently negative results.¹ Computerized tomography (CT), with its ability to delineate abnormal tissue densities within brain parenchyma, may prove to be useful in this disorder. Paxton and Ambrose² reported a CT scan with an ill-defined low density area in the right frontal lobe of a patient with biopsyproven PML. Our report describes a patient with PML in whom clinicopathologic correlation with an abnormal CT scan was obtained. Report of a Case.— A 54-year-old man was admitted to the University of Iowa Hospitals in December 1974 because of visual impairment on the right. Two years before, lymphocytic lymphoma (stage IV) had been diagnosed. He was treated with various chemotherapeutic regimens with no lasting