IIRC, one of you is a radiologist. Can you offer any opinion from one slice of Terri Schiavo's CT scan?
Sorry for the late reply. I did not log in on Saturday.
The "dark areas" are the CT density of Cerebral Spinal Fluid (CSF).
The larger butterfly-shaped area in the center is CSF within the right and left lateral ventricles. The other serpiginous areas are CSF in the subarachnoid space collecting in the sulci and in the fissures of the brain.
The amount of fluid in the vetricles is increased indicating Hydrocephalus.
The bright area within one of the ventricles would be expected to be a portion of a Ventriculoperitoneal Shunt to alleviate the hydrocephalus.
The brain tissue also shows cortical atrophy which increases the potential space between the brain tissue and that space is the filled up with CSF.
The degree of atrophy increases with age and all of us who actually lived through the 60's have some degree of cortical atrophy. The degree of cortical atrophy, however, is definitely abnormal for a woman her age
Be that as it may, you really can't make any clinical judgments as to her mental capacity just by the degree of hydrocephalus and atrophy.
I often see patients with that degree of hydrocephalus with a ventriculoperitoneal shunt in place that are doing just fine.
In addition, many elderly patients with that degree of atrophy that are doing well for their age.
Grandma might not be the sharpest pencil in the family box anymore once she gets to that degree of atrophy but you would be killing off trainloads of Grandmas if you used that degree of cortical atrophy to decide when to end their lives.
