Abstract
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Bilateral T2 hyperintensities in the medial part of the globus pallidus (GP) are sometimes incidentally observed in patients without a known history of diseases that present with such lesions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the frequency of this finding and the association between this finding and age, lifestyle diseases and GP calcification. METHODS: We retrospectively investigated the brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of 742 patients, which included between 104 and 108 consecutive patients from each decade of life between the 20s and 80s. The signal intensity ratio of the medial part to the lateral part of the GP in T2-weighted images (T2 medial/lateral ratio) was evaluated. For cases in which brain computed tomography images were available (N=437), GP calcifications were also evaluated. The associations between the T2 medial/lateral ratio and age, sex, history of lifestyle diseases and GP calcification were investigated. RESULTS: Bilateral T2 medial/lateral ratios >1.10, 1.30 and 1.50 were observed in 29.8%, 7.1% and 1.8% of all cases, respectively. A high bilateral T2 medial/lateral ratio was observed less frequently in young patients (p<0.01), more frequently in elderly patients and those with hypertension or dyslipidaemia (p<0.05) and more frequently in patients with a calcified GP (p<0.01). CONCLUSION: Incidental bilateral T2 hyperintensities in the medial part of the GP on brain MRI are most likely an age-related physiological finding.