Multiple Sclerosis with Caudate Lesions on MRI

A 31-year-old woman displayed sleepiness and impairment of recent memory. T2-weighted MRI revealed high signal intensity lesions in the bilateral basal ganglia, thalamus, and brainstem. Although remission was achieved with corticosteroid therapy, she again displayed memory dysfunction and emotional disturbance one year later, at which time MRI disclosed new lesions in the right caudate nucleus and left frontal white matter. Corticosteroid therapy lead to improvement, and she suffered no recurrence on maintenance steroid therapy. These findings suggest that caudate lesions do occur in multiple sclerosis, the manifestations of which can be abulia and memory dysfunction, as in the present case.(Internal Medicine 40: 358-362, 2001)