Extraparenchymal neurocysticercosis: Demographic, clinicoradiological, and inflammatory features

Extraparenchymal neurocysticercosis (ExPNCC), an infection caused by Taenia solium cysticerci that mainly occurs in the ventricular compartment (Ve) or the basal subarachnoid space (SAb), is more severe but less frequent and much less studied than parenchymal neurocysticercosis (ParNCC). Demographic, clinical, radiological, and lumbar cerebrospinal fluid features of patients affected by ExPNCC are herein described and compared with those of ParNCC patients.

429 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of neurocysticercosis, attending the Instituto Nacional de Neurología y Neurocirugía, a tertiary reference center in Mexico City, from 2000 through 2014, were included. Demographic information, signs and symptoms, radiological patterns, and lumbar cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) laboratory values were retrieved from medical records for all patients. Data were statistically analyzed to assess potential differences depending on cyst location and to determine the effects of age and sex on the disease presentation. In total, 238 ExPNCC and 191 ParNCC patients were included. With respect to parenchymal cysts, extraparenchymal parasites were diagnosed at an older age (P = 0.002), chiefly caused intracranial hypertension (P < 0.0001), were more frequently multiple and vesicular (P < 0.0001), and CSF from these patients showed higher protein concentration and cell count (P < 0.0001). SAb patients were diagnosed at an older age than Ve patients, and showed more frequently seizures, vesicular cysticerci, and higher CSF cellularity. Gender and age modulated some traits of the disease.

This study evidenced clear clinical, radiological, and inflammatory differences between ExPNCC and ParNCC, and between SAb and Ve patients, and demonstrated that parasite location determines different pathological entities.