Background and purpose: Ischemic stroke is a common complication of cryptococcal meningitis. Fluid attenuated inversion recovery vascular hyperintensity (FVH) is a neuroimaging marker of sluggish blood flow usually seen in the setting of acute stroke. FVH have never been described in the setting of meningitis.
Methods: Case report.
Results: A 20-year-old man with cryptococcal meningitis and a magnetic resonance imaging demonstrating FVH had subsequent neurological deterioration and was found to have bilateral ischemic stroke.
Conclusions: In conditions with high risk of stroke, such as meningitis, the presence of FVH should alert the clinician to the possibility of impending infarction.
Copyright © 2011 by the American Society of Neuroimaging.