Marburg disease

  • Rare acute variant of multiple sclerosis
  • Seen in young adults
  • Rapidly progressive course
  • Frequent severe relapses
  • Death or severe disability within weeks to months of onset
  • Preceded by febrile illness
  • Monophasic course
  • Also considered fulminant form of ADEM
  • Massive macrophage infiltration, demyelination, hypertrophic astrocytes, severe axonal injury
Imaging
  • More destructive lesions than in MS or ADEM
  • Multiple focal T2 lesions of different sizes, that coalesce, forming large white matter plaques seen in entire brainstem and hemispheric white matter
  • Perilesional edema and enhancement commonly seen
Read more

Sarbu, Nicolae, et al. “White matter diseases with radiologic-pathologic correlation.” Radiographics 36.5 (2016): 1426-1447.