UMEM Educational Pearls

Category: Neurology

Title: Vasogenic Cerebral Edema

Keywords: vasogenic cerebral edema, white matter, blood-brain-barrier, steroids (PubMed Search)

Posted: 4/26/2017 by WanTsu Wendy Chang, MD
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Vasogenic Cerebral Edema

Vasogenic cerebral edema is most commonly seen with brain tumors and cerebral abscesses.
It mainly involves the white matter.
Gray-white differentiation is maintained, so the edema has a finger-like pattern on CT (see Figure).
It is caused by disruption of the blood-brain-barrier, thus responds to treatment with steroids.

Case image courtesy of Dr David Cuete, Radiopaedia.org, rID: 23178

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