Pathological changes in the brains of rabbits experimentally infected with Angiostrongylus cantonensis after albendazole treatment: histopathological and magnetic resonance imaging studies.

OBJECTIVES

To determine the effects of albendazole on rabbits infected with larvae of Angiostrongylus cantonensis by histopathological and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques.

METHODS

Male rabbits were infected with 400 A. cantonensis larvae and treated with albendazole (5 mg/kg/day) for 2-14 days on day 5, 10, 15 or 20 post-infection.

RESULTS

Although there were pathological changes in the brains, MRI revealed unremarkable findings in the untreated group. However, the treated rabbits exhibited eosinophilic meningitis, choroid plexus inflammation, meningeal congestion, encephalitis, perivascular cuffing and meningitis, and were also found to have abnormal signal intensities on brain MR images in the 20 day post-infection treated group.

CONCLUSIONS

Pathological changes in the brains of the treated rabbits are more severe than those without albendazole treatment, suggesting that the drug may not be very suitable for the treatment of cerebral angiostrongyliasis.