Highlights
- •Heroin-induced leucoencephalopathy is a rare condition.
- •Heroin-induced leucoencephalopathy excluding cerebellum and brainstem is rare.
- •This pattern seems to concern patients that use heroin by sniff or injection.
- •Imaging and clinical patterns can indicate the mode of drug administration.
Abstract
A 29-year-old man was admitted for acute cognitive impairment. Three weeks earlier,
he had been admitted for coma due to sniffed heroin abuse responsive to naloxone infusion.
At admission, the patient presented with apraxia, severe memory impairment and anosognosia.
Brain MRI revealed symmetric hyperintensities of supratentorial white matter, sparing
brainstem and cerebellum, on FLAIR and B1000 sequences. Four months later, repeated
neuropsychological assessment revealed dramatic improvement of global cognitive functions.
Toxic leucoencephalopathy excluding the cerebellum and brainstem is a rare complication
of heroin abuse, and seems to concern especially patients that use heroin by sniff
or injection. In these patients, cognitive troubles are predominant, prognosis seems
better and infratentorial brain structures can be spared.
In conclusion, our observation emphasizes that heroin-induced encephalopathy can have
a favourable outcome and that imaging and clinical patterns can indicate the mode
of drug administration.
Keywords
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References
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: October 11, 2016
Accepted:
September 26,
2016
Received:
July 14,
2016
Identification
Copyright
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
