The authors report clinical correlations of single photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT) findings in reversible posterior leukoencephalopathy (RPL). These are observations that have not received wide attention in literature. A 31-year-old hypertensive gentleman, on discontinuing antihypertensive medications, presented with vomiting, headache, focal motor to bilateral tonic-clonic seizures, altered sensorium, right gaze palsy and right hemiparesis. Accelerated hypertension was noted and he improved well with antihypertensive and anticonvulsant therapy. While cranial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed extensive bilateral lesions, SPECT imaging revealed perfusion defects involving bilateral basal ganglia, left parieto-occipital, right cerebellar and right occipital regions, which corresponded with clinical deficits on examination. While MRI is the standard of care for the evaluation of RPL, this case suggests that SPECT abnormalities may be better localized to the pathogenic lesions. Furthermore, this may begin to explain the pathophysiology of injury in RPL.
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