The radiological findings of hypoglycemic encephalopathy

RATIONALE Hypoglycemic encephalopathy is a metabolic encephalopathy. Clinical risk is mixed with acute cerebrovascular disease, so it is critical to identify and make the correct diagnosis of the disease as early as possible. PATIENT CONCERNS Here, we report a case of a 51-year-old male patient with hypoglycemic encephalopathy, who presented confusion and unconsciousness for 1 day. DIAGNOSES In addition to blood-related indicators and medical histories, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), especially diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), can be valuable to the diagnosis of hypoglycemic encephalopathy, which showed diffuse high-signal intensity in the cerebral cortex, and also the hippocampus, head of the caudate nucleus, the lentiform nucleus, and corpus callosum. INTERVENTIONS Intravenous glucose injection and drip was performed repeatedly. The blood glucose levels were gradually corrected, and the resulting blood glucose was 6.5 mmol/L. OUTCOMES The prognosis depends on the degree of hypoglycemia, duration, and condition of the organism. Due to the long duration of hypoglycemia, unfortunately, the patient died. LESSONS It is critical to diagnose hypoglycemic encephalopathy as early as possible. MRI reveals diffuse abnormal intensity in the cortex and basal ganglia region. DWI using high b values provides important information for diagnosis.