Neurocisticercosis en un hospital de la ciudad de Buenos Aires: estudio de once casos

Abstract

Eleven patients with diagnosis of possible neurocistycercosis were studied in our Department since 1986. All of them were adults. Eight were Bolivian citizens. The commonest neurological clinical manifestation were seizures and/or headache. Brain CT scans showed cystic lesions and calcifications in 5 patients, only calcifications in 3, enlarged ventricles in 2 and an isolated frontal cystic lesion in 1. Six out of 7 patients who were submitted to spinal fluid ELISA test showed positive response for cysticercosis. Patients were put on praziquantel (50 mg/Kg/d) or albendazol (15 mg/Kg/d) with good outcome for all them. Surgery was carried on for treatment of enlarged ventricles (2 patients) and for a like-expansive lesion (1 patient). The aim of this work is to underscore the fact that in Buenos Aires city, which previously was not within the endemic latin american area for cysticercosis, is now possible to find patients with the neurological manifestations of this parasitosis, most probably due to migration of people coming from the north provinces or from countries situated at its border where the disease is endemic.

What is a Low Frequency of the Disseminated Cysticercosis Suggests that Neurocysticercosis is Going to Disappear?

“…The pathogenesis and clinical manifestations of CC depend on the number, size, location, evolutionary state of the parasite and the host's immune response [1,5,[10][11][12][13][14][15][21][22][23]]. In the above-mentioned studies, appear only the seizures and the headache as initial clinical manifestations while in others it is reported: meningitis, dementia, intracranial Hypertension, psychiatric symptoms, ischemic stroke, and radicular compression [10][11][12][13][14][15]17,[24][25][26][27][28][29][30].…”