Pulmonary presentation of Dirofilaria immitis (canine heartworm) in man

Canine heartworm or Dirofilaria ia immitis can occasionally infect man. We present the case of a 36-year-old Balkan woman referred to us for a thoraco scopic biopsy of a well defined pulmonary mass. The latter was thoracoscopi cally resected and proved to be due to Dirofilaria immitis on histopatholog ical examination. To our knowledge this is the second reported case in West ern Australia, the first being that reported by Brine et al. [1]. The preva lence of the disease in Australia was recognized in 1969 in one study in th e state of Queensland, where 12% of 761 dogs at one veterinary clinic and 2 0% of 296 dogs at another were shown to be infected. Dirofilaria immitis re sides in the right ventricle and pulmonary arteries of dogs [2], The microf ilariae are released into the blood stream and are transmitted to secondary hosts by mosquitoes. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.