Imaging diagnosis of superficial siderosis

Abstract

Superficial siderosis (SS) of the central nervous system shows some characteristic imaging features including prominent hypointensity over the brain on T2*–weighted or susceptibility–weighted images. In “classic SS” the lesions are distributed predominantly in the cerebellum and brainstem in the posterior fossa and further more prominent in the vermis than hemispheres in the cerebellum. MRI of the total spinal cord is essential in the evaluation of spinal duropathy which is one of the most important etiologies of classic SS. In “localized SS” are various imaging findings associated with hemorrhagic cerebrovascular disorders, trauma such as traumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage, and neoplasms with intratumoral hemorrhage. Cerebral amyloid angiopathy is a common and important cause of localized SS and often associated with cortical subarachnoid hemorrhage and cerebral microbleedings.