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Angiostrongylus cantonensis infection mimicking a spinal cord tumor
Author(s) -
Petjom Supinda,
Chaiwun Benjaporn,
Settakorn Jongkolnee,
Visrutaratna Pannee,
Rangdaeng Samreung,
Thorner Paul S.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
annals of neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.764
H-Index - 296
eISSN - 1531-8249
pISSN - 0364-5134
DOI - 10.1002/ana.10215
Subject(s) - angiostrongylus cantonensis , medicine , meningoencephalitis , angiostrongyliasis , myelopathy , pathology , spinal cord , cerebrospinal fluid , eosinophilia , meningitis , paraplegia , brain biopsy , biopsy , immunology , surgery , psychiatry , helminths
Angiostrongylus cantonensis is the most common cause of eosinophilic meningitis and meningoencephalitis. Almost all cases are self‐limiting and are diagnosed by cerebrospinal fluid eosinophilia and enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay; pathology reports are restricted to postmortem samples from lethal cases. We report on what we believe is the first case of A. cantonensis infection diagnosed by biopsy in a living patient. The spinal cord was biopsied because of the unusual clinical presentation of a myelopathy without meningeal symptoms, together with a mass lesion that was clinically and radiologically diagnosed as a spinal cord tumor.