Psychiatric manifestations and magnetic resonance imaging in HIV-negative neurosyphilis. NLM AIDSLINE Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

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Psychiatric manifestations and magnetic resonance imaging in HIV-negative neurosyphilis.

Biol Psychiatry. 1997 Feb 15;41(4):467-73. Unique Identifier : AIDSLINE MED/97187088
Russouw HG; Roberts MC; Emsley RA; Truter R; Department of Psychiatry, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Abstract: Neurosyphilis can mimic virtually any psychiatric disorder. Since there are no studies measuring the relationship between its psychiatric manifestations and neuroradiological findings, we performed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on 20 newly diagnosed patients with neurosyphilis and 20 healthy volunteers. MRI abnormalities occurred in 13 neurosyphilis patients. These included foci of increased signal intensity of T2-weighted images, and generalized cerebral atrophy. Two control subjects showed minor focal changes. In the neurosyphilis patients, frontal lesions showed statistically significant associations with the overall degree of psychiatric morbidity as measured by the brief psychiatric rating scale (p < 0.05). Temporo-parietal lesions showed a near significant association with cognitive impairment as measured by the Mini mental-state examination (p = 0.06). Atrophy measures correlated significantly with cognitive impairment. The results suggest that the site of brain lesions may be important in determining the nature of the psychiatric symptoms in neurosyphilis.
Keywords: *HIV Seronegativity *Magnetic Resonance Imaging *Neurosyphilis/DIAGNOSISKWDhivseronegativityKWDmagneticresonanceimagingKWDneurosyphilis/diagnosis
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Copyright © 1997 - National Library of Medicine. Reproduced under license with the National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD.

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