Sex-Related Severity of Inflammation in Parenchymal Brain Cysticercosis

Symptomatic human neurocysticercosis

“…These observations are in accordance with previous studies in which sexual factors have been associated with the intensity of the inflammatory response against the parasite, possibly promoted by the female sex-steroid levels [15,[17][18][19][20][21]. The finding in our study that the intensity of the inflammatory response decreases around fifty years of age would also be in agreement with this possibility.…”

“…In a recent CT-based epidemiological study performed in an endemic rural community, it was demonstrated that the successful establishment of the NCC infection was not related to differences in the level of exposure within the community [14].Autopsy studies made in Mexican hospitals found a higher prevalence in adults than in children (1.3 to 3.1 % and 0.5 %, respectively) [2]. At the hospitals, some differences in NCC clinical forms related to age and gender have been observed: prevalence is higher in middle-aged adults and an inflammatory multi-cystic form has been reported more frequently in women [2,15]. In addition, one casecontrol study found increased HLA A28 antigen and decreased HLA DQw2 antigen in patients with NCC relative to a sample of neurological patients without NCC [16].…”

Sex steroids, immune system, and parasitic infections: facts and hypotheses

“…Host sexual dimorphism in T. solium infections is much less obvious than that of experimental T. crassiceps cysticercosis in laboratory mice. However, women more frequently develop generalized encephalitis than do men, and when bearing subarachnoidal and ventricular vesicular parasites, women show higher inflammatory profiles in their cerebral spinal fluid than do men, 47,48 but no other immunological signs of sexual dimorphism were found 49 . It was recently reported that women harbor more single cysticercotic calcified lesions in their right cerebral hemisphere than in the left one.…”

Brain parenchymal, subarachnoid racemose, and intraventricular cysticercosis in an Indian man

“…The clinical manifestations of neurocysticercosis are determined by the load of organisms, location of cysts, whether the cyst is dead or alive, and the response of the host 1. Parenchymal neurocysticercosis occurs most commonly at grey–white matter junctions.…”

“…The most common manifestation of neurocysticercosis is seizure due to brain parenchymal cysts at various stages of evolution 1. Subarachnoid and intraventricular cysts are rarely seen in India.…”