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Published on: July 5, 2021
[Intracranial tuberculoma mimicking malignant tumour]
María Rico-Cotelo1, Ramón Serramito-García, Eduardo Arán-Echabe
1Servicio de Neurocirugía, Hospital Clínico Universitario, Departamento de Cirugía, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, A Coruña, España.
Introduction:
Tuberculous involvement of the central nervous system is uncommon in western countries. Brain tuberculoma is a granulomatous inflammatory process than in rare occasions can simulate a malignant neoplasm.
Case Report:
A 81-year-old man regarding symptoms of several weeks of evolution of numbness affecting upper limb and right face. The neuroimaging studies showed a left parietal lesion suggestive of a primary malignant tumor. A stereotactic biopsy was performed and the pathological examination showed a brain tuberculoma. The patient was treated with anti-tuberculous drugs.
Conclusions:
Parenchymal central nervous system tuberculosis are rare in our medio and may present as a space-occupying lesion with complex neuroimaging morphology suggesting a malignant neoplasm. Definitive diagnosis was performed with neuropathological studies or with the demonstration of acid-fast bacilli in the tuberculoma.
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