ToxoPath-1: A Multimodal Pathology Dataset of Concurrent Cerebral and Cardiac Toxoplasmosis in an HIV-Positive Patient

Abstract

ToxoPath-1 is a curated, open-access multimodal digital pathology dataset derived from an autopsy-confirmed case of simultaneous cerebral and cardiac toxoplasmosis in a 50-year-old HIV-positive patient with advanced immunosuppression. The dataset integrates gross pathology images, hematoxylin and eosin (H&E)-stained histopathology images, and structured clinical metadata describing patient demographics, clinical presentation, laboratory investigations, autopsy findings, and final pathological diagnosis. The dataset contains ten expertly annotated pathology images from the brain and heart, including gross lesions, cerebral edema, necrosis, meningitis, myocarditis, and microscopic identification of Toxoplasma gondii bradyzoites. Accompanying metadata provide comprehensive clinical and pathological information to support research in computational pathology, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), explainable AI (XAI), medical image analysis, and multimodal data integration. Owing to the exceptional rarity of concurrent cardiac and cerebral toxoplasmosis, ToxoPath-1 serves as a valuable benchmark resource for rare infectious disease research, digital pathology education, and the development of interpretable AI models for opportunistic infections in immunocompromised populations. The dataset is intended exclusively for research and educational purposes and is not designed for clinical diagnosis or patient management. Future expansions may incorporate additional cases to establish a comprehensive repository for toxoplasmosis pathology and HIV-associated opportunistic infections. The original case report was published following written informed consent for autopsy and academic publication obtained from the next of kin. The ToxoPath-1 dataset contains only de-identified images and metadata and is distributed in accordance with applicable ethical standards. Dataset curation and dissemination were conducted under the oversight of the Department of Pathology, Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST), with approval from the Mbarara University of Science and Technology Research Ethics Committee and administrative clearance from Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital (MRRH), Uganda.