Toxic Leukoencephalopathy

Leukoencephalopathy is a structural alteration of cerebral white matter in which myelin suffers the most damage. Toxic leukoencephalopathy may be caused by exposure to a wide variety of agents, including cranial irradiation, therapeutic agents, drugs of abuse, and environmental toxins.1 Toxic leukoencephalopathy particularly involves white-matter tracts devoted to higher cerebral function, causing clinical features that range from inattention, forgetfulness, and changes in personality to dementia, coma, and death. This review focuses on white-matter damage caused by toxins as distinguished from that caused by disorders such as multiple sclerosis, cerebrovascular disease, and metabolic disturbances.2 Although the prevalence of toxic leukoencephalopathy is . . .