Intestinal Paragonimiasis with Colonic Ulcer and Hematochezia in An Elderly Taiwanese Woman

A 94-year-old female with end-stage renal disease presents with fever, fatigue, and hematochezia. She had previously resided in Hunan Province, China, and Myanmar, and she immigrated to Taiwan 30 years ago. Colonoscopy revealed a colonic ulcer. Biopsy of the colonic ulcer showed ulceration of the colonic mucosa, and many Paragonimus westermani-like eggs were noted. Serum IgG antibody levels showed strong reactivity with P. westermani excretory-secretory antigens by ELISA. Intestinal paragonimiasis was thus diagnosed according to the morphology of the eggs and serologic finding. After treatment with praziquantel, hematochezia resolved. The present case illustrates the extreme manifestations encountered in severe intestinal paragonimiasis.

Familial Infestation of Paragonimus westermani with Peritonitis and Pleurisy / 대한소화기학회지

Human paragonimiasis was endemic in Korea until the 1960's, and nowadays, the prevalence is decreasing. However, it is still one of the important helminthic diseases. Though it is essentially a pulmonary disorder, it may involve brain, muscle, mesentery, genital tract, pleura, peritoneum, spinal cord, spleen, and liver. We experienced two cases of paragonimiasis in a family who had ingested raw crabs together for 7 months. A 57-year-old female patient was admitted due to abdominal pain, diarrhea and tenesmus for 6 months. And, her 35-year-old son complained of cough, chest discomfort and dyspnea. The definite diagnosis for paragonimiasis could be made by the detection of the egg and adult worm from stool, sputum and involved lesion. Neither an egg or worm was detected. However, they were diagnosed based on the food history, laboratory data including serum eosinophilia, ELISA for specific IgG, pleural and peritoneal fluid examination, radiological findings, and intradermal tests. They were treated with praziquantel and their symptoms improved rapidly over 2 days. Both patients were asympromatic at a follow-up visit 2 months later.

Re-emergence of paragonimiasis in Kyushu, Japan.

During 1986-1998 we found 104 paragonimiasis cases, which were referred to our laboratory for immunodiagnosis or identification of parasite eggs in sputum or bronchoscopic aspirate smears, or in histopathological sections. A majority of patients were middle-aged males. Except for 2 cases of chronic occult infection in an unexpected site, 102 cases were assumed as having active infection. Abnormal findings in chest radiograms were noted over 80% of the patients, though about 20% of them were asymptomatic. Parasite egg detection rates in sputum or bronchoscopic aspirate smears were about 50%. About 80% of patients have eosinophilia and/or elevated serum IgE level. Paragonimiasis is a re-emerging public health issue in Kyushu, Japan.

Pulmonary paragonimiasis and tuberculosis in Sorsogon, Philippines.

The clinical epidemiology of pulmonary paragonimiasis and tuberculosis was investigated in a known endemic municipality of Sorsogon, Philippines. Records of diagnosed tuberculosis patients on treatment and follow up at the local Rural Health Unit over a two year period from 1993 to 1994 were reviewed to provide an overview of pulmonary tuberculosis in the area, specifically to describe the population at risk, the basis for diagnosis and the proportion of case notification who were sputum negative. Patients from the same group of individuals as well as undiagnosed tuberculosis patients with productive cough, fever with chest and/or back pain, or hemoptysis were examined to look into clinical manifestations, duration of symptoms, history of crab-eating and sputum examination results for acid-fast bacilli and Paragonimus. There was difficulty in determining the number of non-responders as the records did not have any provision for the recording of such. Annual tuberculosis case notification rates for the two years (374 and 401 per 100,000 population) were higher than the national figure in 1991 (325 per 100,000 population) indicating that tuberculosis is still a major health problem in the area and tuberculosis control efforts may have to be more aggressive to better contain the disease. Twenty-six out of 160 individuals surveyed were sputum smear positive for Paragonimus. Paragonimiasis rates were not significantly different in the two groups (15.6% vs 16.9%, respectively) indicating that there is a need for routine sputum examination for Paragonimus which is not available at present. Only six patients surveyed were sputum smear positive for acid-fast bacilli. A high index of suspicion is necessary to diagnose paragonimiasis and to be able to differentiate it from tuberculosis. The diagnosis may be suggested by a patient's place of origin being a known endemic area, a long period of chronic cough and the habit of eating raw or insufficiently cooked crabs or crayfish. Laboratories in endemic areas should have the capacity to differentiate between the two infections by being able to provide the routine laboratory procedures necessary for definitive diagnosis and treatment.

Recent trends of paragonimiasis westermani in Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan.

Miyazaki Prefecture has long been known as one of the endemic areas of paragonimiasis westermani. The prevalence of this disease peaked around 1956 and then drastically decreased. A few sporadic cases are still occasionally found in Miyazaki Prefecture; however, the number of new cases has gradually increased during the last 5 years. One important point to be noted is the change of clinical manifestations in the patients. A classically known form of paragonimiasis westermani is characterized by persisting cough, bloody sputum, and nodular or ring shadows in the lung field by chest x-ray. However, the patients recently found in Miyazaki Prefecture rarely showed such typical symptoms. Only four of 13 cases were found to have pulmonary infiltration and nine cases showed massive pleural effusion without pulmonary infiltration. Such atypical cases may be caused by low intensity of infection or, alternatively, be due to the earlier diagnosis.