Clinical and imaging characterization of patients with toxoplasmic encephalitis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.56294/saludcyt2025539Keywords:
toxoplasmic encephalitis, central nervous system infectionAbstract
Introduction: Cerebral toxoplasmosis is one of the most common opportunistic infections in HIV- positive patients. The clinical picture is given by confusion, personality disorders, lethargy and signs of neurological focus. It is generally located in the basal ganglia and may present single or multiple lesions.
Aim: to describe clinical and imaging characteristics in patients diagnosed with toxoplasmic encephalitis.
Methods: an observational, descriptive and cross-sectional study was carried out. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data and the chi square statistic was used to determine the possible association between qualitative variables.
Results: the average age was 38.2 years (SD = 9.66). Of them, 53 (75.7%) patients were male and 17 (24.3%) were female. Patients taking antiretroviral medications (62.9%) predominated. The main clinical manifestations observed were: headache (72.9%), motor defect (54.3 %) and awareness (50%). Statistically significant differences were reported between the proportions of the levels of the variables hospital discharge condition and CD 4 levels (X2(2) = 6.19, p < 0.05). There were statistically significant differences between the proportions of the variables hospital discharge condition and lesions in computed tomography (X2(8) = 18.6, p < 0.05).
Conclusions: toxoplasmic encephalitis is more common in males and in patients over 38 years of age. The CD4 count and the number of lesions on the head CT scan influence at the prognosis.
References
Zamora R, García JJ, Guilarte CJ. Cerebral Toxoplasmosis In An Immunocompetent Patient. enciMED Revista Cubana de Investigaciones Biomédicas. 2022; 41:e1645. https://revibiomedica.sld.cu/index.php/ibi/article/download/1645/1112.
Huang H, Thomas F. CNS Toxoplasmosis in HIV. Neurology, Drugs and Diseases. 2022. https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1167298-overview.
Vasallo C, Pérez LL, Valladares M, Lafont P. Neurotoxoplasmosis. Enfermedad oportunista en paciente con virus de la inmunodeficiencia humana. UNIMED. 2022; 4(3). https://revunimed.sld.cu/ind ex.php/revestud/article/view /190.
Oconor Y, Reyes C, Salomón JA, Rodríguez L. Aspectos clínicoepidemiológicos e imagenológicos de pacientes con virus de inmunodeficiencia humana/sida y diagnóstico de neurotoxoplasmosis. Revista Médica de Santiago de Cuba. 2022; 26(6). https://medisan.sld.cu/index.php/san/article/view/4373.
González Espinosa LE, Riol Lozano JM, Gómez Viera N, Garzón Cutiño L, Dueñas Ojeda Y. Neurotoxoplasmosis como complicación neurológica de la infección por el virus de la inmunodeficiencia humana. Rev Cub de Medicina. 2017; 56(2):126-132. http://scielo.sld.cu/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0034-75232017000200005.
6. Pantoja C, Martínez A, Ferreirós A, Millán S, Coral J. Toxoplasmosis en sistema nervioso central sobre la patología, abordaje diagnóstico y tratamiento. Acta neurológica Colombiana. 2021; 37(1): Supl. 1: 141-147. https://doi.org/10.22379/24224022346.
Pinchi LE. Características clínicas y epidemiológicas de toxoplasmosis cerebral en pacientes VIH en un hospital de nivel III – lquitos. [Tesis]. Peru: Facultad de Medicina Humana. 2023. Disponible en: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12737/9890.
Sanni D, Hadisaputro S, Sofro MAU. Toxoplasmosis and Cerebral Toxoplasmosis in HIV/AIDS patients in Kariadi Hospital, Semarang. J Epidemiol Kesehat Komunitas. 2021;6(1):213–217. https://dx.doi.org/10.14710/jekk.v6i1.7351.
Fernández- Setien Fernández MC. El VIH/sida y los actuales métodos profilácticos [Tesis]. España: Universidad de Cantabria; 2019. https://repositorio.unican.es/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10902/16482/Fernandez-SetienFernandezMariaCayetana.pdf?sequence=1.
Coto F, Murillo F, Rocha SM. Encefalitis por Toxoplasma gondii en pacientes con virus de la inmunodeficiencia humana. Revista Médica Sinergia. 2021; (6) 10: e723. https://doi.org/10.31434/rms.v6i10.723.
Jaramillo G, Zamora J, Rivero Z, Lucas E, Lino W, Bracho A. Toxoplasmosis cerebral en pacientes con VIH/SIDA. [Internet]. Rev. Qhalikay. 2023; 7(2): 93- 101. Disponible en: https://doi.org/10.33936/qkrcs.v7i2.5796.
Naranjo J, Mora A, Chacha P, Herrera JL, Venegas B. HIV y toxoplasmosis cerebral a propósito de un caso. Enfermería Investiga. 2021;6(5):85-9. https://doi.org/10.31243/ei.uta.v6i5.1459.2021.
Cubas-Vega N, López P, Baia DC, Sampaio VS, Jardim BA, Santana MF. Early antiretroviral therapy in AIDS patients presenting with Toxoplasma gondii encephalitis is associated with more sequelae but not increased mortality. Front Med. 2022; 9:759091. https://10.3389/fmed.2022.759091.
Aljure VJ, Pulido Arias EA, Rodríguez Monroy JA, Rodríguez Mateus MN, Ramos Hernández JA. Diagnóstico diferencial de lesiones cerebrales con realce en anillo en tomografía computarizada y resonancia magnética. Duazary. 2016. 13(2):149-58. https://revistas.unimagdalena.edu.co/index.php/.
Calero SR, Samitier Pastor A, Delgado Ricote C, Pasetto XS. Patología intracraneal asociada a VIH. 33 Congreso Nacional SERAM. 2018. https://piper.espacio-seram.com/index.php/seram/article/view/253/195.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Maytee Olivera Vega, Damian Valdés Santiago, Lisbel Garzón Cutiño (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The article is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Unless otherwise stated, associated published material is distributed under the same licence.
