Listeria Monocytogenes Brain Abscesses in a Patient with Disseminated Non-Small Cellular Lung Cancer: MRI Findings

Anders Lykkemark Simonsen; Nitesh Shekhrajka; Frederik Boëtius Hertz; Jannik Helweg-Larsen; Åse Bengård Andersen; Anne-Mette Lebech

doi:10.3390/diagnostics11061115

Listeria Monocytogenes Brain Abscesses in a Patient with Disseminated Non-Small Cellular Lung Cancer: MRI Findings

Diagnostics (Basel). 2021 Jun 18;11(6):1115. doi: 10.3390/diagnostics11061115.

Authors

Anders Lykkemark Simonsen¹, Nitesh Shekhrajka², Frederik Boëtius Hertz³, Jannik Helweg-Larsen¹, Åse Bengård Andersen¹, Anne-Mette Lebech¹

Affiliations

¹ Heart Centre, Department of Infectious Diseases, Rigshospitalet, Blegdamsvej 9, DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark.
² Department of Neuroradiology, Rigshospitalet, Blegdamsvej 9, DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark.
³ Department of Clinical Microbiology, Rigshospitalet, Blegdamsvej 9, DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark.

Abstract

Brain abscesses caused by Listeria monocytogenes (LM) are very rare and carry a high mortality risk. We present a patient with disseminated non-small cellular lung cancer (NSCLC) and multiple unusual LM brain abscesses. These abscesses have multiple elongated peripherally enhancing lesions in a characteristic formation that is "worm or tramtrack-like" following the white matter fiber tracts.

Keywords: Listeria monocytogenes; MRI; brain abscess; neurolisteriosis.