Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Case Reports
. 2015 Sep;15(3):1045-8.
doi: 10.4314/ahs.v15i3.47.

Multiple intracerebral lesions in a young male

Affiliations
Case Reports

Multiple intracerebral lesions in a young male

Madi Deepak et al. Afr Health Sci. 2015 Sep.

Abstract

Background: As the incidence of HIV infection has increased its neurological complications are being encountered in our clinical practice. Toxoplasmosis is a common cerebral opportunistic infection seen in HIV-infected patients, even though the incidence has declined with the use of antiretroviral therapy. Establishing a definitive diagnosis of cerebral toxoplasmosis is difficult in resource limited settings.

Clinical case: A 20 year old gentleman was referred to our institute as a case of stroke. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of his brain showed multiple ill-defined and nodular enhancing lesions in bilateral supratentorial and infratentorial neuroparenchyma. Test for HIV-1 was reactive. Toxoplasma serology revealed raised IgG antibody levels. Based on the MRI features and positive toxoplasma serology a diagnosis of cerebral toxoplasmosis was made. He was treated with trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole and pyrimethamine/ Sulfadoxine for 3 weeks. After 2 weeks of treatment, repeat MRI of brain was done which showed significant resolution of the lesions.

Conclusion: We are presenting this case to highlight the fact that cerebral toxoplasmosis should be considered in the differential diagnosis of multiple neuroparenchymal lesions in young individuals who present with neurological deficits.

Keywords: Cerebral toxoplasmosis; HIV/AIDS; Neurocysticercosis; Tuberculoma.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

None
Coronal T1 weighted post contrast image showing supratentorial and infratentorial ring enhancing and nodular enhancing lesions on both sides.
None
Repeat MRI of brain after 2 weeks showing significant resolution of the lesions.

References

    1. Doraiswamy V, Vaswani RK, Lahiri KR, Kondekar SS. Neurotoxoplasmosis mimicking intracranial tuberculoma. J Postgrad Med. 2010;56(1):31–34. - PubMed
    1. Luma HN, Tchaleu BC, Mapoure YN, Temfack E, Doualla MS, Halle MP, et al. Toxoplasma encephalitis in HIV/AIDS patients admitted to the Douala general hospital between 2004 and 2009: a cross sectional study. BMC Res Notes. 2013;6(1):146. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Gupta A, Raja A, Mahadevan A, Shankar S K. Toxoplasma granuloma of brainstem: A rare case. Neurol India. 2008;56:189–191. - PubMed
    1. Basavaprabhu A, Soundarya M, Deepak M, Satish R. CNS Toxoplasmosis Presenting with Obstructive Hydrocephalus in Patients of Retroviral Disease- A Case Series. Med J Malaysia. 2012;67:214–216. - PubMed
    1. Schroeder PC, Post MJ, Oschatz E, Stadler A, Bruce-Gregorios J, Thurnher MM. Analysis of the utility of diffusion-weighted MRI and apparent diffusion coefficient values in distinguishing central nervous system toxoplasmosis from lymphoma. Neuroradiology. 2006;48:715–720. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms