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CASE REPORT article

Front. Neurosci.
Sec. Brain Imaging Methods
Volume 18 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnins.2024.1442176

Contribution of Advanced Neuroimaging in diagnosis of Cerebral Syphilitic Gumma: A Case Report

Provisionally accepted
Xinyi Shen Xinyi Shen 1Zhengyang Zhu Zhengyang Zhu 1Xin Li Xin Li 1Wen Zhang Wen Zhang 1Xin Zhang Xin Zhang 1*Bing Zhang Bing Zhang 2
  • 1 Department of Radiology, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China
  • 2 Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Nanjing, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Cerebral syphilitic gumma is a rare intracranial infectious disorder.Without a clear history of syphilis and comprehensive serological examinations, it's challenging to diagnose it accurately prior to surgery through routine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Advanced neuroimaging techniques have been widely used in diagnosing brain tumors, yet there's limited report on their application in cerebral syphilitic gumma. This report presents a case of an elderly male patient with cerebral syphilitic gumma and analyzes its characteristics of advanced neuroimaging.A 68-year-old male patient was admitted to our institution presenting with bilateral hearing loss complicated with continuing headaches without obvious cause. Laboratory tests indicated positive treponema pallidum. Conventional MRI showed nodules closely related to the adjacent meninges in bilateral temporal lobes. The patient underwent surgical resection of the nodule in the right temporal lobe due to the mass effect and the final pathological diagnosis revealed cerebral syphilitic gumma.Conclusions: With the return of syphilis in recent years, accurate diagnosis of cerebral syphilitic gumma is a matter of great urgency. Advanced neuro-MRI can serve as a significant complement to conventional MRI examination.

    Keywords: cerebral syphilitic gumma, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Advanced neuroimaging, intracranial neoplasm, case report

    Received: 01 Jun 2024; Accepted: 24 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Shen, Zhu, Li, Zhang, Zhang and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Xin Zhang, Department of Radiology, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China

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