A rare case of multicentric syncronous bi-frontal glioma in a young female. Diagnostic and therapeutic problems: a case report

Multicentric glioblastoma is a uncommon brain malignant tumour. We report the case of a 43-years-old woman, born in Ukraine and living in Italy, who manifested an initial isolated epileptic seizure and subsequent atypical psychiatric symptoms. Clinical neurological examination, Brain Computed Tomography and standard EEG examinations were negative at the moment of admission. A month later, she presented apathy, apraxia, psychomotor slowdown and expressive aphasia. A Magnetic Resonance Imaging examination showed a bi-frontal lesion. The patient underwent to two neurosurgical removals of the lesions: histological examination demonstrated the presence of a grade IV glioblastoma. Clinical onset, diagnostic and therapeutic problems are discussed. In case of atypical psychiatric presentation, it should be taken into consideration neoplastic, inflammatory or infective causes. Despite the absence of focal neurological signs and basal CT scan and EEG alterations, complementary imaging examinations, such as MRI and contrast enhancement CT, are necessary, especially when the conditions become quickly worse.

L'articolo descrive il caso clinico di una giovane donna ucraina affetta da cancro cerebrale, nello specifico un glioblastoma multicentrico, che si è manifestato con una iniziale sintomatologia psichiatrica atipica, e ciò ha ritardato e reso più complessa la diagnosi. Nell'articolo vengono discussi quindi i problemi incontrati durante la fase di insorgenza dei sintomi, la fase diagnostica e la fase terapeutica, dal punto di vista multidisciplinare psichiatrico, neurologico e neurochirurgico.