paul@phs.UUCP (09/22/83)
I have just sent a reply to Feldmark @ pur-ee on "cystic cytosis" (close, but no cigar), but the address was so strange that I repeat the reply here in net.med. Good idea anyway, since I have doubts about news escaping from Duke anyway (Feldmark: if you see this in news, please let me know). What you describe sounds like cysticercosis. Here, some notes from Robbins's "Pathologic Basis of Disease": "Cysticercosis is an infection in man produced by the ingestion usually of the cysts (Cysticercus cellulosae), of the pork tapeworm T. solium. Several isolated cases have been reported of similar infections by T. saginata, the beef tapeworm. The larvae, through one of the several pathways to be described, invade the wall of the small intestine and are hematogenously disseminated to all the tissues of the body with subsequent inflammatory reactions in the sites of localization... The cysticerci develop in any soft tissue, including the... brain... Each larva develops within the soft tissues into a small, thin, translucent cyst. The cyst evokes an inflammatory reaction... The worms may eventually die in situ and excite a further inflammatory reaction, characterized by fibroblastic proliferation and giant cell and granuloma formation, eventuating in focal granulomas followed by calcifications... When... the brain is invaded, important functional derangements may follow. The central nervous system manifestations usually take the form of jacksonian epilepsy. It is reported that about one in ten patients in Mexico who require brain surgery for the relief of epileptiform seizures is found to have cerebral cysticercosis." What you really want to look into is a standard textbook of medicine, e.g., Harrison's Textbook of Medicine (mine is several buildings away, and I am not, by the way, an M.D.). It does appear that at least some of the cysts are operable, but your friend may have his cyst(s) in a bad place, I certainly don't know. If he can afford it, a second opinion might be a good idea. He might also be interested in more reading. Two possibilities: (1) R.A. Marcial-Rojas (Ed), Pathology of Protozoal and Helminthic Diseases (chapters on [1] Trichinosis and [2] Cysticercosis), and (2) the above- mentioned textbook of medicine. My non-medical opinion is that he should not, as you suggest he is, pretend that it's not a problem. Regards, Paul Dolber @ Duke U Med Ctr (...!duke!phs!paul).