Study of tuberculous meningitis by CT.

Abstract

Computed tomography is a very valuable method by which the pathogenic evolution of tuberculous meningitis may be followed, thereby facilitating its differential diagnosis and controlling the efficiency of therapy. The initial miliary tuberculosis in the brain, very often unaccompanied by neurological symptoms, may offer very evident CT images. CT may also demonstrate the fibrogelatinous exudate which fills the basal cisterns and surrounds the arterial vessels which cross this region. Because of this, secondary arteritis is frequent and may be indirectly detected by CT in the form of foci of ischemic infarcts. Tuberculomas may be multiple, and are found equally in the cerebral and the cerebellar parenchyma. These tuberculomas present different images on CT, depending on the evolution of the disease at that moment. Hydrocephalus is a common complication of TM and is caused by a lack of reabsorption of the cerebrospinal fluid, or by an obstructive lesion in the ventricular drainage pathways due to a tuberculoma. This complication is usually easily identified by CT, which, moreover, permits the control of its evolution.