When do ring-enhancing brain lesions need to be biopsied, and should they be treated empirically first?

Abstract

Other than acute cerebrovascular accidents, multiple ring-enhancing lesions are among the most common lesions encountered in neuroimaging. We herein describe the case of a 63-year-old diabetic man presenting with altered mental status, hyperglycaemia and community-acquired pneumonia who was found to have two ring-enhancing lesions involving the left frontal lobe and left basal ganglia. The lesions were biopsied to reveal positive fungal cultures and toxoplasma cysts. RPR titres returned reactive for non-treponemal antibodies and a suppressed CD4 count was found without evidence of HIV infection.