Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome: neuroradiologic findings

Central nervous system complications depicted by CT in ten patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome are described. Three patients had multifocal intra-axial enhancing lesions representing atypical brain abscesses (two with toxoplasmosis, one with candidiasis). A fourth patient with multifocal "ring" lesions whose biopsy was interpreted as suggestive of toxoplasmosis responded poorly to treatment. Following his death three months later of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, autopsy revealed primary intracerebral immunoblastic lymphoma. One patient had Kaposi sarcoma involving the right frontal lobe (seen as an enhancing mass on the CT scan). CT findings in the remaining five patients revealed mild to moderate enlargement of cerebrospinal fluid spaces (including ventricles and basal cisternae) as a result of cryptococcal meningitis in three patients and "aseptic" meningitis in two. The two patients in whom early biopsy confirmed toxoplasmosis responded well to anti-infective therapy, resulting in dramatic clinical recoveries.