Background: Anaplastic astrocytoma (AA) is rarely observed in the brainstem and the clinical symptoms and imaging manifestations vary, which present a great challenge to accurate clinical diagnosis.
Case description: A 56-year-old woman, with a month-long history of nausea and vomiting, was first diagnosed with acute cerebral infarction and demyelinating disease. The patient showed negative results on enhanced magnetic resonance and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography-computed tomography, and the clinical symptoms were not typical, leading to early misdiagnosis.
Conclusion: Finally, the patient was diagnosed with AA by pathological biopsy.
Keywords: anaplastic astrocytoma; brainstem; misdiagnosis.
© 2022 Rongjiao You et al., published by De Gruyter.