Is the Course of Neurocysticercosis Modified by Treatment With Anthelmintic Agents?

Abstract

It is with great surprise that I read the article on anticysticercal drug therapy by Carpio et al.¹In that study, anticysticercal drugs were not better than symptomatic therapy for the resolution of parenchymal brain cysticerci and did not modify the clinical course of the disease. These results differ from those reported in most studies about praziquantel or albendazole therapy for parenchymal neurocysticercosis (NC)^2-10and did not match with those previously reported by the same authors in the same population of patients with NC. In 1988, Carpio et al¹¹described 20 patients with parenchymal NC in whom albendazole was highly effective and caused a 84% reduction in the number of brain cysts. Because albendazole has been used to treat human NC since 1986,³it must be assumed that those 20 patients had to be included in their 1995 study, because, according to the authors, "Between July