Brain Disorders & Therapy

Susac Syndrome with a unique involvement of the Thoracic spinal cord

3^rd World Brain Congress

August 20, 2021 | Webinar

Rola Mahmoud

Marion Bloch Neuroscience Institute, Saint Luke???s Hospital of Kansas City ,USA

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: Brain Disord The

Abstract:

A woman in her late 20s presented with headaches and subacute encephalopathy. MRIs showed multiple punctate subcortical and periventricular white matter hyperintensities with diffusion restriction, infratentorial lesions, leptomeningeal enhancement of the brainstem and cerebellum and two areas of high-signal abnormality at T4 and T6 raising suspicion for Multiple Sclerosis or acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (Figure 1 and 2). Further studies and evolution of her symptoms during her hospital stay confirmed the clinical triad of encephalopathy, branch retinal artery occlusions and hearing loss pathognomonic for Susac’s syndrome. While cervical cord and cauda equina involvement were reported in Susac’s syndrome previously, no thoracic cord involvement was reported. The extent of nervous system involvement in Susac’s syndrome continued to evolve over the years. It was first described in 1979 by John Susac as microangiopathy of the brain, retina and inner ears. Leptomeningeal involvement was later reported and only 2 cases of cervical cord and cauda equina involvement were reported in 2014. We report a novel MRI finding of thoracic spinal cord involvement to increase awareness among neurologists and neuroradiologists and add to existing literature the possible involvement of any part of the spinal cord in this rare syndrome that could mimic MS on presentation and potentially lead to misdiagnosis. It seems this case we are reporting is one of the last missing links to establish that Susac Syndrome can involve any part of the CNS.

Biography :

Rola Mahmoud has completed her medical school and combined residency in Neurology and Psyciatry at Ain Shams university in Cairo, Egypt followed by residency at SUNY downstate medical center in Brooklyn, New York and a fellowship in Multiple Sclerosis at Baylor College of Medicne in Houston, Texas. She is the director of the Comprehensive Multiple Sclerosis center at Marion Bloch Neuroscience institute of Saint Luke’s hospital of Kansas city and an Assistant Professor at UMKC school of medicine. She is a member of the health care provider council of the National MS society and is involved in clinical trials. She has published some papers in reputed journals and has been serving as a reviewer for BMJ journal.