Intracranial tuberculoma with difficult preoperative diagnosis. Case report]

Intracranial tuberculoma is a relatively rare tumor in developed countries. A 41-year-old Japanese male with a personal history of pulmonary tuberculosis at the age of 20 was referred because of continuous headache. Computed tomography scan revealed multilocular ring-like enhancement in the right deep temporal region with massive brain edema. Angiography showed an avascular mass with narrowing of the carotid bifurcation. The preoperative diagnosis was glioblastoma. This mass was successfully removed and the histological diagnosis was tuberculoma. This case suggested that tuberculoma is still one of the differential diagnoses of an enhanced mass lesion even without any active extracranial tuberculous lesion.