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Central nervous system vasculitis is inflammation of cerebral and spinal vessels of varying caliber. Among 101 patients with primary CNS vasculitis, these authors identified 5 with spinal-cord involvement and assessed their clinical and laboratory findings and outcomes.
The patients had an admixture of histology: A spinal-cord biopsy from patient 3 showed granulomatous inflammation, as did a brain biopsy from patient 4. Patient 1 had nongranulomatous inflammation of the brain and spinal cord at autopsy, which was similar to findings in a brain biopsy from patient 2. By contrast, patient 5 had a normal brain biopsy, and vasculitis was seen only in the cauda equina.
Apart from myelopathy, localization of thoracic lesions on contrast brain MRI, …