[Friedrich Christoph Pelizaeus (1851–1942), neurologist and balneologist in Nassau, Ilmenau, Kreischa and Bad Oeynhausen, Germany]

[Ludwig Merzbacher (1875–1942), neuropathologist and psychiatrist in Freiburg, Heidelberg and at the University of Tübingen, Germany and chief physician at German Hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina]

= rare X-linked sudanophilic leukodystrophy (5 types with different times of onset, rate of progression, genetic transmission)

Age: neonatal period

• bizarre pendular nystagmus + head shaking; cerebellar ataxia
• slow psychomotor development

CT:

• hypodense white matter
• progressive white matter atrophy

MR:

• lack of myelination (appearance of newborn brain retained)
• hyperintense internal capsule, optic radiations, proximal corona radiata on T1WI
• near complete absence of hypointensity in supratentorial region on T2WI
• mild / moderate prominence of cortical sulci

Prognosis: death in adolescence / early adulthood