Topical Review: Parasitic Infections of the Central Nervous System in Children. Part III: Space-Occupying Lesions

Abstract

In the last part of this three-part review of parasitic infections of the central nervous system in children, we consider parasites which due to their size, distribution, or the nature of the host response, tend to cause focal lesions in the brain and spinal cord and therefore present as space-occupying lesions which occasionally mimic malignant tumors. As in Parts I and II, infections are grouped according to their predominant geographic area. Such infections include cysticercosis, one of the more common and important infections of the central nervous system.

Neurocysticercosis

“…Neurocysticercosis is common in Asia and Latin America, and the incidence has been estimated to be 1% in Mexico. [1][2][3][4][5]…”

Neurocysticercosis

“…Autopsy revealed extensive organ involvement by Hodgkin disease and diffuse cytomegalovirus pneumonitis. [1][2][3][4][5] At autopsy, multiple cysts were grossly evident in the cerebral cortex of the left frontal lobe and paracentral area and one cyst in the white-matter adjacent to the caudate and putamen ( Figure 1B).…”

“…Neurocysticercosis is common in Asia and Latin America, and the incidence has been estimated to be 1% in Mexico. [1][2][3][4][5]…”

Spinal intramedullary neurocysticercosis

“…Auch kernspintomographisch lassen sich die spinalen parasitischen Herde leider h~iufig nicht von Tumoren differenzieren [3,27,34,40,45]. Andererseits ist durch die unterschiedliche Kontrastmittelaufnahme bei Erkennung der Erkrankung sogar eine Zuordnung des jeweiligen Stadiums der Larven und der assoziierten Zyste m6glich [9,11,29,30,56].…”