Cerebral toxoplasmosis in a patient with common variable immunodeficiency

Cerebral toxoplasmosis in a patient with combined variable immunodeficiency

Background:

Cerebral toxoplasmosis is an opportunistic infection in patients but has rarely been described in the setting of compromised humoral immunodeficiency. Prompt diagnosis and treatment of the infection is critical in the care of these patients. Medical management is the mainstay of treatment of the infection. There have been very few reports of surgical management of cerebral toxoplasmosis.

Case Description:

We describe the case of a 40-year-old male who presented with headache, memory deficits, weight loss, and left-sided weakness in the setting of a known but undiagnosed brain lesion identified 1 month prior. Imaging demonstrated a right basal ganglia lesion which was initially presumed to be malignancy. On further workup including a positive serum test and biopsy including polymerase chain reaction analysis, diagnosis was confirmed as toxoplasmosis. On further investigation, he was found to have deficiencies in immunoglobulins consistent with common variable immunodeficiency (CVID). The patient underwent craniotomy with surgical debulking as repeat imaging showed increased size of mass with new satellite lesions and worsening hydrocephalus.

Conclusion:

Cerebral toxoplasmosis is an important differential to consider in cases of intracerebral lesions and should not necessarily be excluded in the absence of compromised cellular immunity. In cases where there is no immunocompromised state and malignancy cannot immediately be established, CVID should be considered as an etiology. Due to the subtlety of CVID diagnosis, careful attention should be paid to history taking and workup for CVID should be considered as soon as possible. Surgical removal of these lesions in conjunction with medications is an effective treatment option.

Cerebral Toxoplasmosis As the Initial Presentation of HIV: A Case Series

The HIV epidemic afflicts millions across the globe, and Sub-Saharan countries bear a disproportionately high burden. Cerebral toxoplasmosis is commonly seen as the disease progresses but is rarely ever reported as the initial manifestation of HIV. The clinical presentation, co-existing risk factors, and outcomes remain underreported. The objective of this article is to report cerebral toxoplasmosis as the initial manifestation of HIV. This is a consecutive series of three patients that presented to a community hospital in Pennsylvania, United States, with a variety of neuropsychiatric symptoms and were found to have cerebral toxoplasmosis. The findings are compared with existing literature on cerebral toxoplasmosis as the initial manifestation of HIV. Cerebral toxoplasmosis as the initial manifestation of HIV is a rarely reported phenomenon. Hyponatremia may be linked with this disease-complex, although further studies are warranted to establish a causal relationship. Co-infection with hepatitis viruses is also a common finding in these patients.

Disseminated and Congenital Toxoplasmosis in a Mother and Child With Activated PI3-Kinase δ Syndrome Type 2 (APDS2): Case Report and a Literature Review of Toxoplasma Infections in Primary Immunodeficiencies

Phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) plays an integral role in lymphocyte function. Mutations in PIK3CD and PIK3R1, encoding the PI3K p110δ and p85α subunits, respectively, cause increased PI3K activity and result in immunodeficiency with immune dysregulation. We describe here the first cases of disseminated and congenital toxoplasmosis in a mother and child who share a pathogenic mutation in PIK3R1 and review the mechanisms underlying susceptibility to severe Toxoplasma gondii infection in activated PI3Kδ syndrome (APDS) and in other forms of primary immunodeficiency.

Case Report: Ocular toxoplasmosis in a WHIM syndrome immunodeficiency patient

A patient with WHIM syndrome immunodeficiency presented with sudden painless right eye blindness associated with advanced retinal and optic nerve damage. Toxoplasma gondii was detected by PCR in vitreous fluid but not serum.  The patient was treated with pyrimethamine/sulfadiazine for 6 weeks due to evidence of active ocular inflammation and then received prophylaxis with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole due to his immunosuppression.  Vision did not return; however, the infection did not spread to involve other sites.  Toxoplasmosis is rare in primary immunodeficiency disorders and is the first protozoan infection reported in WHIM syndrome.

Neurologic Complications of Common Variable Immunodeficiency

Common variable immunodeficiency is a rare disorder of immunity associated with a myriad of clinical manifestations including recurrent infections, autoimmunity, and malignancy. Though rare, neurologic complications have been described in a small number of case reports and case series of CVID patients. In this article, we present a patient with CVID who suffered significant neurologic morbidity and categorize the reported range of neurologic complications associated with CVID. Our case highlights the complex nature of neurologic manifestations in CVID patients, and our review of the current database suggests that infection and inflammatory neurologic disorders are the cause of most neurologic presentations.

Case report and review of the literature: Toxoplasma gondii encephalitis in a 40-year-old woman with common variable immunodeficiency and a new diagnosis of large granular lymphocytic leukemia

Toxoplasma gondii has been well-documented to cause central nervous system infections in immunodeficient patients. The present study describes a case of central nervous system toxoplasmosis in a patient with common variable immunodeficiency and newly diagnosed large granular lymphocytic leukemia, with a review of the literature for this association.

Fatal Cerebral Toxoplasmosis in a Heavily Immune Suppressed Patient with Waldentrom's Disease

A 57 year-old gentleman with Waldenstrom's disease developed ecthyma gangrenosum, molluscum contagiosum and fatal cerebral toxoplasmosis. The emergence of these infections is discussed in the light of drug-induced immune-suppression.

Cerebral toxoplasmosis in a middle-aged man as first presentation of primary immunodeficiency due to a hypomorphic mutation in the CD40 ligand gene

Cerebral toxoplasmosis can occur outside the setting of advanced HIV immunodeficiency or drug-induced immunosuppression. A case of cerebral toxoplasmosis is reported in a previously healthy 41-year-old man who was found to have a genetic defect in CD40 ligand, resulting in the X linked hyper-IgM syndrome despite normal surface protein expression on flow cytometry. This highlights the fact that primary immunodeficiencies can first present late in life with a relatively mild phenotype and should be considered in the differential diagnosis of opportunistic infections in non-HIV infected patients; in addition, normal protein expression does not necessarily rule out hypomorphic mutations.

Toxoplasma meningoencephalitis in HIV-seronegative patients: clinical patterns, imaging features and treatment outcome

We evaluated the clinical and imaging features of cranial toxoplasmosis in patients without HIV infection. Between 1995 and 2005, 15 patients with serologically proven cranial toxoplasmosis were selected for clinical and imaging study from 233 patients with chronic meningitis and 364 patients with seizures/psychosis. All patients had poor immune status due to nutritional and metabolic causes. Neurological presentations included focal encephalitis, multifocal encephalitis and diffuse meningoencephalitis. The three groups had distinct symptoms and imaging features, with some overlap. Magnetic resonance imaging showed single or multiple nodular or ring-enhancing lesions often at the grey-white junction with subcortical white matter perifocal oedema. Within the large diffuse lesions there were discrete small haemorrhagic lesions and contrast medium administration showed fine-beaded parallel lines or small discrete nodules traversing the white matter suggesting perivenous spread. Complete clinical recovery was noted in 12 patients after several 6-week courses of pyrimethamine and sulfonamide/clindamycin. Five patients required two such courses, three patients required three courses, three patients required five courses and two patients required six courses for the final radiological healing, which was complete in nine patients. One patient was lost to follow-up and one patient died of cardiomyopathy. Knowledge of these three distinct initial presentations may help in the early diagnosis of cranial toxoplasmosis in HIV-seronegative patients. Prognosis in early cases is generally good but complete recovery may need several courses of treatment.