Abstract
We present a case of acute focal demyelinating lesion in the left temporal lobe mimicking a malignant brain tumor. A 34-year-old man suffered from sensory aphasia. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed a mass lesion in the left temporal lobe with incomplete ring-like enhancement by gadolinium. The patient underwent a partial resection of the lesion. Intraoperative pathological diagnosis was astrocytoma (grade II). However, postoperative MRI demonstrated that the residual lesion decreased in size and pathological studies revealed a demyelinating lesion without neoplastic change. The difficulty of differential diagnosis between demyelinating disease as a solitary contrast-enhancing mass and malignant brain tumor is discussed based on both the neuroimaging and neuropathological aspects.
