A Case of Cerebral Toxoplasmosis in a Patient with Acquired Immune Defeciency Syndrome

ABSTRACT

Toxoplasmosis is one of the most common opportunistic infection of the central nervous system in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome(AIDS). There have been few reports of cerebral toxoplasmosis in patients with AIDS in Korea. In most cases, the diagnosis was assisted by serology and neuroradiologic findings. Making a reliable diagnosis of acute cerebral toxoplasmosis is difficult in patients with AIDS because of the lack of specificity of serologic data and neuroradiological findings. We report a case of 32-year-old man who presented with decreased mentality and fever. Brain MRI showed multiple ill-defined mass-like lesions in both basal ganglia and right thalamus. Stereotatic brain biopsy revealed small parasitic cysts which were filled with toxoplasmic bradyzoites in inflammatory brain tissue.