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Query: UMLS:C0024530 (malaria)
 44,886 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Cerebral involvement in parasitoses is an important clinical manifestation of most of the human parasitoses. Parasites that have been described to affect the central nervous system (CNS), either as the dominant or as a collateral feature, include cestodes (Taenia solium (neurocysticerciasis), Echinococcus granulosus (cerebral cystic echinococcosis), E. multilocularis (cerebral alveolar echinococcosis), Spirometra mansoni (neurosparganosis)), nematodes (Toxocara canis and T. cati (neurotoxocariasis), Trichinella spiralis (neurotrichinelliasis), Angiostrongylus cantonensis and A. costaricensis (neuroangiostrongyliasis), Gnathostoma spinigerum (gnathostomiasis)), trematodes (Schistosoma mansoni (cerebral bilharziosis), Paragonimus westermani (neuroparagonimiasis)), or protozoa (Toxoplasma gondii (neurotoxoplasmosis), Acanthamoeba spp. or Balamuthia mandrillaris (granulomatous amoebic encephalitis), Naegleria (primary amoebic meningo-encephalitis), Entamoeba histolytica (brain abscess), Plasmodium falciparum (cerebral malaria), Trypanosoma brucei gambiense/rhodesiense (sleeping sickness) or Trypanosoma cruzi (cerebral Chagas disease)). Adults or larvae of helminths or protozoa enter the CNS and cause meningitis, encephalitis, ventriculitis, myelitis, ischaemic stroke, bleeding, venous thrombosis or cerebral abscess, clinically manifesting as headache, epilepsy, weakness, cognitive decline, impaired consciousness, confusion, coma or focal neurological deficits. Diagnosis of cerebral parasitoses is dependent on the causative agent. Available diagnostic tools include clinical presentation, blood tests (eosinophilia, plasmodia in blood smear, antibodies against the parasite), cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) investigations, imaging findings and occasionally cerebral biopsy. Treatment relies on drugs and sometimes surgery. Outcome of cerebral parasitoses is highly variable, depending on the effect of drugs, whether they are self-limiting (e.g. Angiostrongylus costaricensis) or whether they remain undetected or asymptomatic, like 25% of neurocysticerciasis cases.
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PMID:Parasitoses of the human central nervous system. 2304 8

Central nervous system fungal infections can be broadly divided into those that infect a healthy host such as Cryptococcus, Coccidioides, Histoplasma, Blastomyces, Sporothrix spp., and those that cause opportunistic infections in an immunocompromised host such as Candida, Aspergillus, Zygomycetes, Trichosporon spp. The clinical manifestations of central nervous system fungal infections commonly seen in children in clinical practice include a chronic meningitis or meningoencephalitis syndrome, brain abscess, rhino-cerebral syndrome and rarely, a fungal ventriculitis. Fungal central nervous system infections should be suspected in any child with subacute to chronic febrile encephalopathy or meningitis with or without raised intracranial pressure, seizures, orbital pain and/or sero-sanguinous nasal discharge. Diagnosis is corroborated by cerebrospinal fluid analysis, culture and PCR, special stains, serological tests and neuroimaging. Management of fungal central nervous system infections include specific antifungal therapy and supportive measures for associated problems, management of underlying predisposing condition and surgical intervention in cases with localized disease, abscess or presence of simultaneous foreign body such as intracranial shunts. In addition to the fungi, several parasitic infections can cause central nervous system infections in children. Of these, authors briefly discuss cerebral malaria, and amebic meningo-encephalitis.
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PMID:Fungal and Parasitic CNS Infections. 2912 15