Intracerebral-Mass Lesions in the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS)

Abstract

To the Editor: In a letter in the May 5 issue, Pitchenik et al.¹ conclude that in patients with AIDS who have intracerebral-mass lesions, there may be situations in which a trial of antibiotic therapy for presumptive toxoplasmosis is an acceptable alternative to establishment of the diagnosis by brain biopsy. Although the nonsurgical treatment of mass lesions in the central nervous system may be reasonable in their group of predominantly Haitian patients with AIDS, a potential danger arises if this approach is generalized to all patients with AIDS. At the University of California, San Francisco, we evaluated nine patients with . . .