Clinicoradiologic response of neurologic tuberculous mass lesions in children treated with thalidomide.
Neurologic tuberculous pseudoabscesses that clinically progress despite conventional antituberculosis therapy may be responsive to adjuvant thalidomide, a potent tumor necrosis factor-α inhibitor. In this study, the addition of thalidomide provided substantial clinical benefit in the majority of patients, and magnetic resonance imaging evolution of lesions from early-stage "T2 bright" with edema to "T2 black" represented a marker of cure.
From the *Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Stellenbosch University and Tygerberg Children's Hospital; †Division of Radiodiagnosis, Stellenbosch University and Tygerberg Hospital; ‡Department of Paediatrics, New-Somerset Hospital; and §Department of neuropathology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
Ronald
R
van Toorn
Anne-Marie
AM
du Plessis
Hendrik Simon
HS
Schaaf
Heliose
H
Buys
Richard H
RH
Hewlett
Johan F
JF
Schoeman
D000293:Adolescent; D000995:Antitubercular Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006257:Head / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D007223:Infant; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011859:Radiography; D013792:Thalidomide / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014390:Tuberculosis, Meningeal / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology*
D000995:Antitubercular Agents; D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents; D013792:Thalidomide