[Hemorrhagic stroke associated to neurocysticercosis]

A well-known complication of neurocysticercosis is cerebral arteritis, which is usually manifested by cerebral ischemia. Only anecdotal cases of hemorrhagic stroke associated to this parasitosis have been described. Previously there are only two reported cases of this association. One of these cases had an intracystic hemorrhage confirmed by autopsy without cerebrovascular risk factors. Autopsy revealed an inflammatory arteriopathy adjacent to the cyst intracystic hemorrhage. The second case had a subarachnoidal hemorrhage secondary to the rupture of an aneurysm in the right anteroinferior cerebellar artery. At surgery, the aneurysm was found to be surrounded by a thickened-leptomeninges, which histologically showed the presence of cysticercous with dense inflammation. Our first patient was a 32 year-old female developed a lenticulo-capsular hemorrhage around a cysticercotic lesion. The second patient was a 34 year-old male developed an intracystic hemorrhage. As cerebral angiography was normal in both patients, cerebral hemorrhages were considered to be related to cysticercotic arteritis of small penetrating vessels. We conclude that cysticercosis is associated with differenttypes of intracranial hemorrhage, as documented the present cases. In neurocysticercosis endemic areas, cysticercotic arteritis should be added to the list of causes of intracranial hemorrhage in young people.