Approach to White Matter Lesions of Brain

Abstract

The differential diagnosis of brain white matter lesions is extensive. The main goal of this paper is to help the radiologists to categorize the findings under two main white matter patterns. A vascular pattern which represents microvascular involvement and a perivascular pattern which represents the inflammatory demyelinating diseases such as multiple sclerosis. The most common cause of white matter lesions is microvascular disease due to hypertension, diabetes melitus, and other hypoxic ischemic causes. To differentiate the vascular disease from the multiple sclerosis, the distribution and location of lesions are the most important factors.