the patient: A 32-year-old woman in Shanghai
Symptoms: The woman went to the hospital suffering from a persistent cough, sometimes accompanied by bloody phlegm, which she coughed up two or three times a day. She said the cough started four months before her visit to the hospital. About a month before the cough started, she had… fever Which lasted several weeks and reached 100.8°F (38.3°C).
The patient’s doctors gave her steroids to reduce inflammation in the lung tissue. However, her cough persisted even after two months of this treatment. A CT scan of her lungs revealed recurrent lesions or tissue injuries, and she was sent to another hospital for further examination.
Diagnosis: When doctors at the second hospital reviewed the woman’s medical history, they noted that her diet often included raw seafood, and she reported a “preference for raw frogs and bullfrogs,” the doctors wrote in their report. a report Describing her condition. The team ran a blood test to see if her blood contained it Antibodies For any parasites, they found antibodies to their larvae Spirometra mansoni, A type of tapeworm.
Larvae, or Spreadl S. Mansoni It causes a parasitic infection called Sparganosis. This infection is most common in East AsiaPeople often acquire the parasites by eating raw or undercooked snakes or frogs that are infected with larvae. Evidence indicates. after S. Mansoni The larvae are ingested and migrate to various tissues and organs of the body. In the woman’s case, these germs accumulated in her lungs, a very rare destination for the parasite.
When the patient presented the doctors with a frog from her area in Shanghai, they dissected it and found that it carried… S. Mansoni.
Because the woman’s symptoms and CT scan results closely resembled signs of eosinophilic pneumonia, doctors who examined her during her first hospital visit misdiagnosed her condition, according to the report.
Treatment: Doctors treated the woman with it Praziquantel tabletsIt is a medicine that works against different types of parasitic worms. After the woman took the tablets for five days, her cough subsided.
A CT scan performed 20 days after her second hospitalization showed that previously seen fuzzy areas in her lungs — a sign of infection or physical trauma — were shrinking. At a follow-up visit one month later, the cough had completely disappeared. However, the patient’s blood tests showed that she was still producing antibodies against the parasite, indicating continued infection.
Doctors prescribed another five-day course of praziquantel and performed a follow-up examination five months later. Traces of antibodies remained in the patient’s blood, but in very small quantities. The white blood cell count was normal, and doctors decided no further treatment was needed.
What makes the case unique: Asparagia infection usually appears in the tissues just under the skin, near the surface of the body. They rarely migrate to internal organs. This is the first documented case in Shanghai of lung sparganosis, the authors of the case report wrote.
Eating raw animal meat is an ancient cultural tradition in parts of Asia, and sometimes, young animals may be consumed while still alive. Live frogs are sometimes eaten as a folk remedy for a variety of ailments; An 82-year-old woman in Hangzhou She was hospitalized with a parasitic infection after swallowing eight tiny live frogs in an attempt to relieve chronic back pain.
For more interesting medical cases, check out our website Archives of the Diagnostic Dilemma.
This article is for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide medical advice.