[Cerebral cysticercosis treated by albendazole: development of cerebral magnetic resonance imaging]

A 36-year-old Indian man presented with a generalized tonic-clonic seizure. The diagnosis of neurocysticercosis was suspected by the presence of multiple cystic and nodular cerebral lesions on MRI, and was confirmed by serological studies (ELISA). He was treated with albendazole during one week at the daily dose of 15 mg/kg. This case illustrates the advantage of MRI over CT for the detection and the therapeutical follow-up of neurocysticercosis. Moreover, the MRI findings can be correlated to the anatomical stage of neurocysticercosis, proposed by Escobar (1983); four stages are described: I = vesicular stage (living larvae), II = vesicular colloidal stage (degenerating larvae), III and IV, granular nodular and nodular calcified inactive stages respectively.