Clinical manifestations and imaging features of white matter demyelination in older patients

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the clinical manifestations and imaging features of older patients with white matter demyelination diagnosed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). METHODS: Ninety-six patients with leukoaraiosis diagnosed by MRI were divided by their clinical diagnoses into a demyelinating group (40 cases) and a non-demyelinating group (56 cases). The imaging and clinical features of the patients in the two groups were analyzed. RESULTS: Compared with the non-demyelinating group, there were significantly more women in the demyelinating group than men. There was no significant difference in age between the two groups. Of the 37 cases who had an imaging report of “white matter demyelination and multiple sclerosis,” 36 cases had a clinical diagnosis in accordance with white matter demyelination (97.3%). Of the 59 cases who had an imaging report of “white matter demyelination”, only four cases had a clinical diagnosis in accordance with demyelination (6.8%). CONCLUSION: In older patients with headaches, vertigo, other head symptoms, and unilateral numbness as the chief complaints, a clinical diagnosis of demyelinating disease is very unlikely when the imaging report states white matter demyelination only.