A Retrieved Sparganum of Spirometra erinaceieuropaei from a Korean Man during Mechanical Thrombectomy.

Human sparganosis is a zoonotic disease caused by infection and migration of the plerocercoid of Spirometra spp. Although sparganosis were reported from most parts of the body, the sparganum parasitizing inside cerebral artery is remarkably uncommon. We report a case of cerebral intravascular sparganosis in an elderly patient with acute ischemic stroke who was diagnosed by retrieving sparganum during mechanical thrombectomy. Finally, the parasites were identified as Spirometra erinaceieuropaei using multiplex PCR and cox1 gene sequencing.

Secondary histomorphological changes in cerebral arteries of normotensive and hypertensive rats following a carotid-jugular fistula induction.

Haemodynamic changes in cerebral circulation are associated with the natural ageing process and associated pathology, leading to the development of incapacitating neurological and neurovascular diseases. Due to inherent biological limitations, current literatures mostly aimed at studying the correlation descriptively or quantifying the relationship in vitro or using computational models. In this paper, a model of a carotid-jugular fistula in the rat was used to create a haemodynamic insult to the intracranial arterial circulation and subsequent venous drainage. An arterial-venous (AV) fistula was created in 12 rats, 6 of which are normotensive Wistar-Kyoto strain (WKY) and the rest spontaneously hypertensive strain (SHR) with an additional 6 in each strains designed as controls without previous surgery. After 4 weeks of convalescence, all 24 rats were euthanised and their cerebral circulation was examined histomorphologically. We confirmed an intrinsic morphological difference between normotensive WKY and hypertensive SHR and found a modest but significant arterial shrinkage in both strains induced with AV fistula. We also reported that alterations in blood flow are also associated with marked extracellular matrix changes. We concluded that the model was suitable for studying the relative contributions of altering haemodynamic patterns and venous drainage on cerebrovascular changes. We also found that hypertension modulated cerebral vascular changes in addition to disrupted blood flow.

Cerebral cysticercotic arteritis: detection and follow-up by transcranial Doppler.

Intracranial arteritis is a well-known complication of cerebral cysticercosis. The aim of this study was to explore the possible role of transcranial Doppler (TCD) in the evaluation of cysticercotic arteritis in 9 patients with subarachnoid cysticercosis and stroke. Arteritis of main basal vessels was detected by TCD in 7 of 10 arterial lesions that were demonstrated by cerebral angiography. The Doppler pattern was occlusive in 2 cases and stenotic in 5. In the 3 patients with lacunar infarcts, both cerebral angiography and TCD were normal. In 6 arterial lesions followed serially with TCD a stenotic pattern resolved within 4 and 6 months in 3 cases and remained in the stenotic range at 12 months in 1 case, whereas an occlusive pattern persisted at 6 and 18 months in the other 2 cases. In conclusion, TCD may be useful to detect and follow up cerebral vasculitis due to chronic cysticercotic arachnoiditis.

Frequency of cerebral arteritis in subarachnoid cysticercosis: an angiographic study.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Subarachnoid cysticercosis is a well-recognized cause of cerebral infarction. However, few patients with this infection develop cerebral infarction, and the reason for this is not known. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of cerebral arteritis in these patients. METHODS: Using cerebral arteriography, we studied 28 patients with subarachnoid cysticercosis admitted to our hospital from July 1993 to February 1996. All patients underwent MRI to detect the presence of basal arachnoiditis. We analyzed demographic data, time to cysticercosis since the first symptom onset, mode of onset, stroke syndromes, neuroimaging features of cysticercosis and cerebral infarction, and arteriographic findings for each patient. RESULTS: Of the 28 patients (mean age, 37 years), 15 patients had angiographic evidence of cerebral arteritis (53%); 12 of the 15 had a stroke syndrome (P=.02). Eight of the 15 patients (53%) with cerebral arteritis had evidence of cerebral infarction on MRI, whereas only one patient without cerebral arteritis had cerebral infarction (P=.05). The most commonly involved vessels were the middle cerebral artery and the posterior cerebral artery. CONCLUSIONS: The frequency of cerebral arteritis in subarachnoid cysticercosis is higher than previously reported, and middle-size vessel involvement is a common finding, even in those patients without clinical evidence of cerebral ischemia.

Cerebrovascular occlusive disease: hydatidosis.

We reviewed six patients with cerebral hydatid embolism from the heart. Although hydatid disease is becoming less common in the world as a whole, it should be considered in the differential diagnosis of embolic stroke in children, especially in the infested areas where hydatidosis is endemic.

Vascular changes in cerebral schistosomiasis mansoni: a histopathological study of fifteen cases.

A histopathological study of 15 cases of cerebral schistosomiasis mansoni is presented. All patients had the hepatosplenic form, and except for two, the cardiopulmonary form of the disease. The most common lesions were periovular mononuclear inflammatory reaction, granulomas and focal astrocytosis. Arteritis and vascular lesions suggesting sequelae of arteritis or ova passage through the arterial wall were found in 26.7% and 20% of the cases, respectively. The clinical features and the possible mechanisms by which the S. mansoni ova produce the vascular changes are discussed. These findings indicate that vascular changes were common in our patients with cerebral schistosomiasis mansoni.

Polyarteritis nodosa associated with nosematosis in blue foxes.

The patho-morphological lesions in fox nosematosis (encephalitozoonosis) were studied in a material comprising 150 young blue foxes from 23 different farms. Disseminated nosematosis in blue fox pups was regularly accompanied by severe vasculitis, affecting medium-sized and small arteries in various organs. The acute damage has the form of a necrotizing angiitis, with mural necrosis and sometimes resultant thrombosis. The causative organism Nosema cuniculi, is frequently present in the freshly affected arterial walls, either in endothelial or in medial smooth muscle cells. Older lesions include nodular fibrous thickening of the arterial walls, and intimal proliferation, sometimes with luminal obliteration. The conclusion is drawn that the arterial lesions are morphologically equivalent to classical polyarteritis nodosa.