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Neurocysticercosis in Buenos Aires: a study of eleven patients in a metropolitan hospital

Eleven patients with diagnosis of possible neurocistycercosis were studied in our Department since 1986. All of them were adults. Eight were Bolivian citizens. The commonest neurological clinical manifestation were seizures and/or headache. Brain CT scans showed cystic lesions and calcifications in 5 patients, only calcifications in 3, enlarged ventricles in 2 and an isolated frontal cystic lesion in 1. Six out of 7 patients who were submitted to spinal fluid ELISA test showed positive response for cysticercosis. Patients were put on praziquantel (50mg/Kg/d) or albendazol (15mg/Kg/d) with good outcome for all them. Surgery was carried on for treatment of enlarged ventricles (2 patients) and for a like-expansive lesion (1 patient). The aim of this work is to underscore the fact that in Buenos Aires city, which previously was not within the endemic latinamerican area for cysticercosis, is now possible to find patients with the neurological manifestations of this parasitosis, most probably due to migration of people coming from the north provinces or from countries situated at its border where the disease is endemic.

cysticercosis; central nervous system; neurocysticercosis


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