PULMONARY PARAGONIMIASIS - CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES

Pulmonary paragonimiasis is a disease caused by a lung fluke. It is en demic to East Asia, but there have been several case reports in North America. Human infestation occurs by ingestion of raw or incompletely cooked freshwater crab or crayfish infected with metacercaria. A retro spective study was performed with 78 patients who lived in South Korea and had chest radiographic findings of pleuropulmonary disease; it wa s subsequently shown that they had paragonimiasis. The diagnosis was b ased on positive results of serologic tests for Paragonimus-specific a ntibody or on the detection of eggs in sputum samples. Radiologic find ings from these 78 patients were correlated with the pathologic and ra diologic findings from a study of experimentally induced pulmonary par agonimiasis in 21 cats. Findings from the correlative study document t hat the typical radiologic manifestations of pulmonary paragonimiasis vary with the stage of the disease. Early findings include pneumothora x or hydropneumothorax, focal airspace consolidation, and linear opaci ties and are caused by the migration of juvenile worms. Later findings include thin-walled cysts, dense masslike consolidation, nodules, or bronchiectasis and are due to worm cysts.