Cerebral toxoplasmosis: case review and description of a new imaging sign.
Toxoplasmosis can have catastrophic consequences in immunocompromised patients if left untreated. Accurate diagnosis is difficult, as there is substantial overlap between the imaging findings and presenting clinical syndromes of cerebral toxoplasmosis and primary central nervous system lymphoma. This paper reviews the previously described and fairly well-known post-contrast computed tomography (CT) and T1-weighted (W) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) target signs seen in toxoplasmosis. In addition, it offers a new imaging sign, the T2W/FLAIR (fluid attenuated inversion recovery) target sign, which is often seen in clinical practice but not well-published, as an aid to the diagnosis of cerebral toxoplasmosis.
Department of Radiological Sciences, UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA. rmasamed@mednet.ucla.edu
R
R
Masamed
A
A
Meleis
E W
EW
Lee
G M
GM
Hathout
D016543:Central Nervous System Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D008223:Lymphoma / Q000175:diagnosis; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods; D016781:Toxoplasmosis, Cerebral / Q000175:diagnosis*