Brain chagoma, central nervous system chagoma, chagasic encephalitis and Chagas encephalitis are terms used to describe brain lesions in immunocompromised individuals with Trypanosoma cruzi parasite infection (Chagas disease).
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Terminology
Brain chagoma is distinct from the cutaneous lesion chagoma, which can occur at the site of the causative Trypanosoma cruzi inoculation.
Clinical presentation
In the setting of untreated human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), reactivated Chagas disease can present with symptoms of a space-occupying lesion, encephalitis, or meningoencephalitis 4.
Radiographic features
White matter lesions which may involve the cortex and can exert mass effect, which may be indistinguishable from other tumoral lesions in immunocompromised individuals such as neurotoxoplasmosis and primary CNS lymphoma, important differentials in this setting 1,2.
History and etymology
Chagas disease was described in 1909 by the Brazilian Carlos Justiniano Ribeiro Chagas (1879-1934), head of the Oswaldo Cruz Institute and director of the Malaria Control Program 3. He named Trypanosoma cruzi after his mentor, Oswaldo Cruz, with whom he studied what we now know as Chagas disease, infecting various mammals and studying the parasite that developed in their blood 3.
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