Intracerebral Calcifying Pseudoneoplasm of the Neuroaxis (CAPNON) Presenting with an Atypical Immunohistochemical Profile: Case Report and Review of the Literature

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Author Info

Helioenai S. Alencar Victor P. Coelho Luiz A. Ferreira-Filho Lissa C. Goulart Siderley S. Carneiro Osvaldo Vilela-Filho

Corresponding Author

Osvaldo Vilela-Filho
Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, Medical School, Federal University of Goiás, Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil

A B S T R A C T

Background: Calcifying pseudoneoplasm of the neuroaxis (CAPNON) is a very rare benign lesion that can be located anywhere in the nervous system, with only 59 intracranial cases described. The general lack of knowledge about this lesion hinders its preoperative diagnosis. Despite the consistent image findings, the final diagnosis is only established based on anatomopathological and immunohistochemical studies. The lesion is more commonly positive for epithelial membrane antigen (EMA) and vimentin, and negative for glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and S-100, suggesting a leptomeningeal origin. The opposite, however, may also occur, although very rarely (just two cases positive for GFAP and negative for EMA and vimentin reported this far). The treatment consists of total resection of the lesion, which yields a good prognosis. Case Presentation: We report the case of a 23-year-old female who presented with disperceptive focal seizures, sometimes evolving to bilateral tonic-clonic seizures, starting at age 9. She had a nodular calcified lesion in the left precuneus and inferior parietal lobe. The lesion was completely resected, and the immunohistochemical study revealed positivity for EMA, vimentin, GFAP, and S-100. No case hitherto published was positive for all four markers. This atypical immunohistochemical profile of the CAPNON may suggest a dual origin of this lesion, both parenchymal and leptomeningeal. Conclusion: The general lack of knowledge of CAPNON makes this lesion underdiagnosed. Therefore, in the face of a calcified lesion in the nervous system, one should consider the possibility of a CAPNON among the differential diagnoses. The immunohistochemistry is undoubtedly an important tool, but the anatomopathological study, associated with image findings, remain the gold standard for the diagnosis of CAPNON.

Article Info

Article Type

Case Report and Review of the Literature

Publication history

Received: Sat 28, Nov 2020
Accepted: Tue 08, Dec 2020
Published: Sat 19, Dec 2020

Copyright

© 2023 Osvaldo Vilela-Filho. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Hosting by Science Repository.
DOI: 10.31487/j.SCR.2020.12.18