Could Differences in Infection Pressure Be Involved in Cysticercosis Heterogeneity?

Filho, Pedro Tadao Hamamoto; Singh, Gagandeep; Winkler, Andrea Sylvia; Carpio, Arturo; Fleury, Agnès

doi:10.1016/j.pt.2020.07.003

Cited by 22 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…A study highlighted that with decreasing infection pressure, lesions are mostly found in the extraparenchymal space. [ 10 ] Whether this is due to infection pressure or simply because of less specific signs/symptoms and therefore later diagnosis, is still not clear. For Africa, so far only limited information is available on radiological features of NCC which shows African patients to be somewhere in between Indian and Latin American patients, although closer to the latter.…”

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confidence: 99%

Epidemiological, clinical and radiological characteristics of people with neurocysticercosis in Tanzania–A cross-sectional study

et al. 2022

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Background Neurocysticercosis (NCC) is common among people with epilepsy in low-resource settings. Prevalence of NCC and radiological characteristics of patients with NCC vary considerably even within small areas but differences have been poorly characterized so far. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study between August 2018 and April 2020 in three district hospitals in southern Tanzania (Ifisi, Tukuyu and Vwawa). Patients with and without epileptic seizures were included in this study. All patients were tested with a novel antibody-detecting point-of-care test for the diagnosis of Taenia solium cysticercosis. All test positives and a subset of test negatives had a further clinical work-up including medical examination and computed tomography of the brain. NCC was defined according to the Del Brutto criteria. We assessed epidemiological, clinical and radiological characteristics of patients with NCC by presence of epileptic seizures and by serology status. Results In all three district hospitals, more than 30% of all people with epileptic seizures (PWE) had NCC lesions in their brain (38% in Vwawa, 32% in Tukuyu and 31% in Ifisi). Most PWE with NCC had multiple lesions and mostly parenchymal lesions (at least 85%). If patients were serologically positive, they had in the median more lesions than serologically negative patients (15 [interquartile range 8–29] versus 5 [1.8–11]), and only serologically positive patients had active stage lesions. Furthermore, serologically positive PWE had more lesions than serologically positive people without epileptic seizures (10.5 [7–23]), and more often had active lesions. PWE diagnosed with NCC (n = 53) were older, and more commonly had focal onset seizures (68% versus 44%, p = 0.03) and headache episodes (34% versus 14%, p = 0.06), which were also stronger than in PWE without NCC (p = 0.04). Conclusion NCC is common among PWE. A combination of clinical and serological factors could help to establish an algorithm to identify patients potentially suffering from active NCC, who benefit from further clinical investigation including neuroimaging.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Epidemiological, clinical and radiological characteristics of people with neurocysticercosis in Tanzania–A cross-sectional study

et al. 2022

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“…The publications related to Neurocysticercosis and Chagas disease, caused by the parasites Taenia Solium and Trypanosoma cruzi, respectively. Studies for the former have established criteria for its diagnosis [243][244][245]; it has been determined that it produces antibodies if it is extraparenchymal [246], treatments [247,248] and other studies of a general nature [249,250]. Regarding Chagas disease, its life cycle [251,252], alterations it generates in the human body [253], treatments [254] and controls [255] have been considered.…”

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Scientific Research in Ecuador: A Bibliometric Analysis

et al. 2021

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Ecuador has shown a growth in its scientific production since 2011, representing 85% of the total historical production. These investigations are reflected in scientific publications, which address world interest topics and serve as a link for the university, business, and society. This work aims to analyze the scientific production generated by Ecuador in the period of 1920–2020 using bibliometric methods to evaluate its intellectual structure and performance. The methodology applied in this study includes: (i) terms definition and search criteria; (ii) database selection, initial search, and document compilation; (iii) data extraction and software selection; and finally, (iv) analysis of results. The results show that scientific production has been consolidated in 30,205 documents, developed in 27 subject areas, in 13 languages under the contribution of 84 countries. This intellectual structure is in harmony with the global context when presenting research topics related to “Biology and regional climate change”, “Higher education and its various approaches”, “Technology and Computer Science”, “Medicine”, “Energy, food and water”, and ”Development and applications on the Web”. Topics framed in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), sustainability, climate change, and others. This study contributes to the academic community, considering current re-search issues and global concerns, the collaboration between universities and countries that allow establishing future collaboration links.

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“…In our study, most patients had parenchymal and multiple lesions which is partly different from India and Latin America, where the predominant features are single parenchymal lesions of the granuloma type and a mixture of multiple parenchymal but also extraparenchymal lesions, respectively [ 26 , 27 ]. This may be due to complex interactions between the Taenia solium parasite, its host(s) and environmental factors such as infection pressure, which has previously been reported [ 28 – 30 ]. It also needs to be mentioned that the radiological features as described in our study may be biased by the lack of highly sensitive CT scanners, those available in sub-Saharan Africa often are of mediocre quality, and limited access to MRI scanners.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characteristics of people with epilepsy and Neurocysticercosis in three eastern African countries–A pooled analysis

Stelzle

Schmidt²,

Keller³

et al. 2022

PLoS Negl Trop Dis

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Background Neurocysticercosis (NCC), a zoonotic disease caused by the pork tapeworm T. solium, represents one of the most common causes of secondary epilepsy but remains often undiagnosed due to lack of awareness and diagnostic facilities. Methodology We pooled data from four cross-sectional studies on epilepsy and NCC in eastern Africa. Study sites were in Uganda, Malawi and in Tanzania (Dar es Salaam and Haydom). The study in Uganda and Malawi were community-based, the two studies in Tanzania were hospital-based. The same questionnaire was used for assessment of clinical characteristics of patients with epilepsy. Computed tomography (CT) scans and serological testing were performed in order to diagnose NCC. Results Overall, 1,179 people with epilepsy were included in our analysis. Of those, 941 PWE underwent CT scanning and were pooled for NCC analysis. Seventy patients were diagnosed with NCC, but NCC prevalence differed considerably between sites ranging from 2.0% (95%CI 0.4% to 3.6%) in Dar es Salaam to 17.5% (95%CI 12.4% to 22.6%) in Haydom. NCC prevalence did not show any association with sex but increased with age and was higher in rural than urban settings. In addition, being a farmer, non-Muslim, eating pork and living with pigs close by was associated with a higher NCC prevalence. PWE with NCC experienced their first epileptic seizure around 3 years later in life compared to PWE without NCC and their epileptic seizures seemed to be better controlled (p<0.001). There was no difference between focal onset seizures and focal signs on neurological examination in both groups (p = 0.49 and p = 0.92, respectively). The rT24H-EITB had a sensitivity for the detection of NCC of 70% (95% confidence interval [CI] 51 to 84%), the LLGP of 76% (95%CI 58 to 89%) and the antigen ELISA of 36% (95% CI 20 to 55%). Conclusions NCC is prevalent among PWE in eastern Africa, although it may not be as common as previously stated. Demographic characteristics of PWE with NCC differed from those without NCC, but semiological characteristics and results on neurological examination did not differ compared to PWE without NCC. Interestingly, seizures seemed to be less frequent in PWE with NCC. Being aware of those differences and similarities may help triaging PWE for neuroimaging in order to establish a diagnosis of NCC.

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Could Differences in Infection Pressure Be Involved in Cysticercosis Heterogeneity?

Cited by 22 publications

References 63 publications

Epidemiological, clinical and radiological characteristics of people with neurocysticercosis in Tanzania–A cross-sectional study

Epidemiological, clinical and radiological characteristics of people with neurocysticercosis in Tanzania–A cross-sectional study

Scientific Research in Ecuador: A Bibliometric Analysis

Characteristics of people with epilepsy and Neurocysticercosis in three eastern African countries–A pooled analysis

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