Fig. 2

Pencil-like hyperintensity and owl’s eyes sign on DWI. A 21-year-old woman presented with muscle weakness in the upper limbs and back pain. MRI was performed 9 days after symptom onset and revealed a linear T2 abnormality spanning the C5–7 vertebral level (a). The linear abnormality, namely pencil-like hyperintensity, was also observed on DWI (b). At the C5/6 intervertebral level (arrows, a and b), mild T2 hyperintensities around the anterior horns were observed on the axial plane (c); moreover, the hyperintensities became a pair of apparent hyperintense lesions on DWI (d) and corresponded to owl’s eyes sign. The lesions on the axial DWI were hypointense on ADC maps (e). She was diagnosed with spinal cord infarction. ADC, apparent diffusion coefficient; DWI, diffusion-weighted imaging; MRI, magnetic resonance imaging