Angiostrongylus cantonensis infection mimicking a spinal cord tumor.
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.
Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Thailand.
Supinda
S
Petjom
Benjaporn
B
Chaiwun
Jongkolnee
J
Settakorn
Pannee
P
Visrutaratna
Samreung
S
Rangdaeng
Paul S
PS
Thorner
D000328:Adult; D017185:Angiostrongylus cantonensis / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D000818:Animals; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D013120:Spinal Cord Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D017206:Strongylida Infections / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D013785:Thailand