MR imaging of neurocysticercosis

Magnetic resonance (MR) was performed in 50 patients with neurocysticercosis. Comparison was made with other neuroradiological imaging modalities including CT, myelography, CT ventriculography, and CT myelocisternography. Eighteen patients were found to have intraventricular cysts. In several patients, these were multiple and 22 intraventricular cysts were discovered. Although 4 of the 22 ventricular cysts were missed by MR, T1-weighted images can play a significant role in the early detection of intraventricular cysticercosis cysts, showing the cyst wall (9 of 22), a high intensity mural nodule (6 of 22), and increased signal intensity of the cyst fluid (5 of 22). Cisternal cysts (14 cysts in 10 patients) could be identified; they appear similar to intraventricular cysts, but mural nodules are infrequently seen (1 of 14). Twenty-nine patients had 69 parenchymal cysts. An attempt was made to assess the viability of these parenchymal lesions by matching the CT and MR findings with the Escobar pathologic staging system. Neuroimaging findings seemed compatible with early parenchymal lesions in the vesicular stage in 11 instances. Findings in cases with later stage cysts tend to support the concept that a dying larva provokes pronounced inflammatory reaction in the adjacent brain. Computed tomography remains the superior modality for depicting parenchymal calcifications within dead larvae. A case of a spinal cysticercosis cyst demonstrated with MR (in a patient with extensive intracranial cisternal cysts and a fourth ventricular cyst) is described.