A Case of Cysticercosis with Multiple Intracerebral and Intramuscular Nodular Lesions

Abstract

A 47-year-old Chinese woman with no significant medical history admitted for sudden-onset seizures and transient right homonymous hemianopsia had moved from China to Japan 4 years previously. Contrast brain computed tomography (CT) showed multiple calcified nodular lesions with surrounding edema, one in the left parietal lobe being likely responsible for her visual symptoms. After admission, two painful intramuscular nodular lesions were found in her left lower limb. Histopathologically biopsy specimens from these lesions were not diagnostic. Serum antibody testing (ELISA) for Taenia solium, however, was positive, yielding a diagnosis of (neuro) cysticercosis. The woman responded well to albendazole and prednisolone treatment. In the two years since discharge, she has not developed any new symptoms or seizure recurrence. With increasing global travel, clinicians must thus consider the possibility of neurocysticercosis in cases of nodular brain lesions in subjects from areas where Taenia solium remains endemic.