Mycobacterium genavense infection presenting as a solitary brain mass in a patient with AIDS: case report and review

Patients with AIDS are prone to developing infections with opportunistic pathogens. Recently, a new mycobacterium, Mycobacterium genavense, has been found to cause infection in patients with AIDS. Previously published reports indicate that patients who are infected with this organ-ism present with the same clinical features as do patients with disseminated infection due to organisms of the Mycobacterium aviumcomplex. We describe an unusual case of a patient with AIDS who presented with grand mal seizures and a mass lesion in his brain, which was found to be caused by infection with M. genavense. No evidence of disseminated infection could be found in this patient. We discuss the microbiology of this organism and review the literature on M. genavense infections. Clinicians should be aware of this organism so that efforts at culture and identification will be made. Patients with AIDS develop numerous opportunistic in-fections and are particularly prone to infections caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis and by organisms belonging to the Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC). Most MAC in-fections are disseminated, and the patients usually present with chronic fevers and weight loss and often with anemia [1]. Recently there have been several reports ofdisseminated infection due to Mycobacterium genavense. a new member of the genus Mycobacterium [2-5]. All of the patients described in these reports presented with signs and symptoms similar to those seen in patients with disseminated MAC infection [1]. We describe a patient with AIDS who presented after having a seizure; he was found to have a cerebral mass lesion that was caused by infection with M. genavense. We believe that this is the first patient with infection due to this organism to present in such a fashion