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.