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Epileptic Disorders

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Rasmussen’s encephalitis Volume 6, issue 3, September 2004

Figure 1. Pathological hallmarks of Rasmussen’s encephalitis. A) Overview of frontal neocortex with leptomeninges from a hemispherectomy for chronic epilepsy. The cortex is shrunken with widening of the sulci. There is focal spongiosis (light area) alternating with zones of dense astrocytic gliosis. (B‐D) In the active disease process cortical neurons are surrounded by aggregates of inflammatory cells (‘microglial nodules’) (B) that contain mainly cytotoxic T‐cells (C) and activated microglia (D) (positive labelling is indicated by the brown signal). Hematoxylin‐eosin (A‐B), immunocytochemistry for CD8 (C) and CD68 (D). Original magnifications x40 (A) and × 600 (B‐D). (Courtesy Dr Olaf Ansorge).