Alexander disease: An important mimicker of focal brainstem glioma.
We report the case of a 6-year-old male who was referred to a tertiary oncology center with a focal brainstem lesion which was presumed to be neoplastic. Due to the symmetric nature of the lesion on magnetic resonance imaging, the evaluation was expanded to investigate other possible causes and eventual diagnosis of Alexander's disease (AD) was made. AD is a neurodegenerative disease which must be included in the differential for tumor-like lesions within the posterior fossa.
Van Poppel
Katherine
K
Division of Neurology, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee 38105, USA.
Broniscer
Alberto
A
Patay
Zoltan
Z
Morris
E Brannon
EB
D015746:Abdominal Pain / Q000209:etiology; D038261:Alexander Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D020295:Brain Stem Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002648:Child; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005183:Failure to Thrive / Q000209:etiology; D005904:Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein / Q000235:genetics; D005910:Glioma / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006579:Heterozygote; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D020125:Mutation, Missense; D017354:Point Mutation
D005904:Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein