INTRACRANIAL TUBERCULOMA - IMPORTANT DIFF ERENTIAL-DIAGNOSIS OF INTRACRANIAL SPACE-OCCUPYING LESIONS

A 3 year-old boy who since his second year of life had several episode s of pneumonia, cough, fever and weight loss, but never demonstrated t ypical signs of tuberculosis on his chest x-ray, presented with a slow ly progressive spastic hemiparesis. Magnetic resonance imaging showed a space-occupying lesion in the basal ganglia resembling a glioblastom a or an abcess. A therapeutic attempt using antibiotics was not succes sful. An intracutaneous tuberculin tine test, resulting in a blister, the identification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in gastric contents a nd the histological examination of the stereotactic tumor biopsy final ly established the diagnosis of intracranial tuberculoma of the basal ganglia. After one year under a triple therapy (isoniazid, rifampicin and pyrazinamide) clinical and radiological features have significantl y improved.