Recent advances in brain imaging present new challenges for the diagnosis of brain cysticercosis, as illustrated by the following case. A 32-year-old woman was admitted to the neurology department with intracranial hypertension of 9 months duration, mild left hemiparesis (4/5), and a left babinski sign. Cerebrospinal fluid opening pressure was 300 mm H2O. The fluid contained 25 cells, 120 mg of...

OBJECTIVE To assess the association between the prevalence of tongue cyst-positive and antigen-positive pigs across different settings in Africa, to evaluate whether examining pigs for cysts could be used as a rapid surveillance tool for identifying geographical areas with a higher probability of high transmission of cysticercosis. METHODS Published data were collated from 26 study sites acro...

1. Departamento de Clínica Médica, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis (SC) Brasil. 2. Departamento de Radiologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro (RJ) Brasil. A 37-year-old homosexual Brazilian man presented with fever, chest pain, and several small, palpable lumps in the anterior chest wall. Physical examination revealed numerous mobile subcutaneous an...

Several topics on taeniasis and cysticercosis in Asia and the Pacific are overviewed. In Asia and the Pacific, three human taeniid species have been recognized: Taenia solium, Taenia saginata and Taenia asiatica. The first topic is on evolution of T. solium. Mitochondrial DNA polymorphisms of T. solium worldwide are discussed with emphasis of two specific genotypes: American-African and Asian. ...

During a stratified cross-sectional survey, 1705 pigs were sampled from 279 randomly selected households, 63 randomly selected communities and villages, from four study areas in The Gambia and Senegal during the period October 2007 to January 2008. Porcine cysticercosis prevalence detected by tongue inspection at animal level per study area ranged from 0.1% to 1.0%. Using an antigen-detection E...

BACKGROUND Neurocysticercosis accounts for 30%-50% of all late-onset epilepsy in endemic countries. We assessed the clustering patterns of Taenia solium human cysticercosis seropositivity and seizures around tapeworm carriers in seven rural communities in Peru. METHODOLOGY The presence of T. solium-specific antibodies was defined as one or more positive bands in the enzyme-linked immunoelectr...