BACKGROUND: Aspergilloma of the nasal cavity or paranasal sinuses rarely extends through the skull base into the intracranial space. PATIENT: The patient was a 79-year-old man in a nonimmunosuppressive state who had an invasive aspergilloma of the base of the frontal lobe. CLINICAL COURSE: The patient, whose initial symptom was a visual disturbance, eventually developed an occlusion of the right internal carotid artery and died. The diagnosis was established by a transsphenoidal biopsy. CONCLUSIONS: A rare case of invasive aspergilloma of the frontal base is described with emphasis on the findings of low-intensity mass on the T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The prognosis in this disease is very poor. Early diagnosis and surgical treatment, combined with postoperative antifungal drug therapy, would have improved the outcome.
BACKGROUND:Aspergilloma of the nasal cavity or paranasal sinuses rarely extends through the skull base into the intracranial space. PATIENT: The patient was a 79-year-old man in a nonimmunosuppressive state who had an invasive aspergilloma of the base of the frontal lobe. CLINICAL COURSE: The patient, whose initial symptom was a visual disturbance, eventually developed an occlusion of the right internal carotid artery and died. The diagnosis was established by a transsphenoidal biopsy. CONCLUSIONS: A rare case of invasive aspergilloma of the frontal base is described with emphasis on the findings of low-intensity mass on the T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The prognosis in this disease is very poor. Early diagnosis and surgical treatment, combined with postoperative antifungal drug therapy, would have improved the outcome.