뇌경색으로 발현한 스파르가눔증 1예

Abstract

A 54-year-old man was admitted with sudden right hemiparesis. He had occasional transient weakness of the right arm, but had not been evaluated or treated. He had no risk factors of stroke, such as hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, smoking, cardiac disease, hypercoagulability, and familiy history of stroke. The serum levels of protein C, protein S, homocysteine, and anti-phospholipid antibody were within normal ranges. ECG and transesophageal echocardiography were also normal. He had a history of ingestion of raw snakes 30 years ago, and a micro-ELISA test was positive for sparganosis in serum and CSF. Brain CT and MRI demonstrated acute cerebral infarction with irregular enhancement in the left hemisphere, with a focal calcified granuloma in the right corpus callosum. To our knowledge, this is the first report of sparganosis presenting with cerebral infarction, as demonstrated on diffusion MRI. This finding suggests that the cerebral sparganosis might be considered as the cause of cryptogenic cerebral infarction.