Subcortical frontal lesions on MRI in patients with motor neurone disease

MRI was performed in 32 patients with motor neurone disease (26 men and 6 women, aged 40-77 years) and in a control group of 21 subjects. Of the patients studied, 19 had definite and 11 probable amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and two had progressive bulbar palsy. In 10 patients there were asymmetrical bilateral foci of increased signal intensity on proton-density and T-2-weighted images, confined to the white matter. Two patients had only cortical frontal atrophy and slightly increased ventricular size, whereas 20 had normal MRI. The focal lesions were not confined to corticospinal tracts, but were also observed in subcortical frontal areas. While the lesions along the corticospinal tracts correspond to pyramidal tract degeneration, the subcortical foci correlate with degeneration of the frontal bundles and indicate generalised involvement of the central nervous system.