Diffusion-weighted MRI predicts prognosis in severe hypoglycemic encephalopathy

Abstract

A 20-year-old woman presented unconscious due to hypoglycemia after a self-administered insulin injection. Diffusion-weighted MRI (DWI), performed 5 days after admission, demonstrated heterogeneous high-intensity signal areas in both the cortex and subcortex but sparing the motor and sensory centers. On the 11th day after admission, she began making incomprehensible verbal sounds, eye opening spontaneously and moving her extremities with pyramidal tract signs. Three months later, she had aphasia, agnosia and apraxia but a normal gait without pyramidal tract signs or ataxia. DWI is thus considered useful to predict the functional outcome of patients with severe hypoglycemia.