Neurobrucellosis

In 5-10% of cases of brucellosis may lead to central nervous system manifestation presenting most often as a meningitis or meningoencephalitis. We report three neurobrucellosis who have different presentation. First patient; a 49-year-old-woman who developed diffuse cerebral white matter lesions as leukoencephalopathy associated with neurobrucellosis, presented with gait disturbance, behavior change and seizure. Second patient; 44-year-old man was admitted to our hospital with a complaint of progressive motor weakness in his bilateral legs for four months and headache for one year. The patient’s symptoms may be explained with myeloradiculopathy and meningoencephalitis but the clinical picture didn’t correlate with imaging findings. Third patient; 23-year-old man was admitted to our hospital with a complaint of transient numbness attacks in his left of face and hand and headache for twenty days. He presented as meningitis which is the most clinical presentation of neurobrucellosis and meningovascular complications. Conclusively, brucellosis is still endemic in Turkey and thus neurobrucellosis should be considered in the unexplained neurological symptoms such as cognitive dysfunction, young transient ischemic attacks, paraparesis and psychiatric symptoms.

Keywords
Neurobrucellosis, leukoencephalopathy, transient ischemic attack, paraparalysis