Presence of palinopsia as a sign of selective CNS tractopathy: A case report

Abstract

Palinopsia, described as the persistence of visual images or their recurrence after the stimulus has disappeared, represents a rare but important neuro-ophthalmic complication. Until now, the pathophysiology and the main location of this visual mainteanance condition are not been clearly understood. This study presents a 30-year-old woman with palinopsia who had her selective optic radiation lesion assessed by diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). The finding of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) did not reveal any damage in the selective optic pathway whereas DTI showed a decreased density of the optic radiation tract. Furthermore, the mean diffusivity (MD), axial diffusivity (AD), and radial diffusivity (RD) were increased in suspected regions of lesions ds, while fractional anisotropy (FA) was decreased. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first report of a case of palinopsia representing the central nervous system (CNS) tractopathy. Therefore, we encourage further investigation of optic pathway pathology using DTI in complex neurological complications, including palinopsia.