Human pulmonary dirofilariasis has been documented from many parts of the world, but not in Korea so far. We experienced a patient of pulmonary dirofilariasis who had visited a local clinic because of chest pain for 1 month. On chest radiograph, a coin lesion of 2 cm diameter and enlargement of the mediastinal lymph node were shown. An exploratory lung resection was done. Pathologically the lesion was a pulmonary dirofilariasis complicated with necrotic pneumonia, fibrosis, and infarction. At the center of the lesion, degenerated nematode sections with multilayered cuticle, thick musculature, and bilateral internal ridges on each side were found, which was identified to be Dirofilaria immitis. This is the first report of human pulmonary dirofilariasis in Korea.
Case Report ; Dirofilariasis/pathology* ; Dirofilariasis/diagnosis ; Human ; Lung Diseases, Parasitic/pathology* ; Lung Diseases, Parasitic/diagnosis ; Male ; Middle Age

A 3-yr-old female mongrel dog was referred to the Veterinary Teaching Hospital of Chungnam National University in the Republic of Korea. An adult heartworm, Dirofilaria immitis, was found in the abdominal cavity of the dog during spaying. Dirofilariasis in this dog was also diagnosed by modified Knott's test, ELISA test, and PCR analysis. The present case is the first report on the migration of an adult dog heartworm to the abdominal cavity of a dog in the Republic of Korea.
Abdomen/*parasitology/pathology ; Animals ; Dirofilaria immitis/*physiology ; Dirofilariasis/*parasitology/pathology ; Dog Diseases/*parasitology/pathology ; Dogs ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay/veterinary ; Female ; Polymerase Chain Reaction/veterinary

Dirofilariasis is a rare disease in humans. We report here a case of a 48-year-old male who was diagnosed with pulmonary dirofilariasis in Korea. On chest radiographs, a coin lesion of 1 cm in diameter was shown. Although it looked like a benign inflammatory nodule, malignancy could not be excluded. So, the nodule was resected by video-assisted thoracic surgery. Pathologically, chronic granulomatous inflammation composed of coagulation necrosis with rim of fibrous tissues and granulations was seen. In the center of the necrotic nodules, a degenerating parasitic organism was found. The parasite had prominent internal cuticular ridges and thick cuticle, a well-developed muscle layer, an intestinal tube, and uterine tubules. The parasite was diagnosed as an immature female worm of Dirofilaria immitis. This is the second reported case of human pulmonary dirofilariasis in Korea.
Animals ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Dirofilaria immitis/*isolation & purification ; Dirofilariasis/*diagnosis/parasitology/surgery ; Humans ; Lung/pathology ; Lung Diseases, Parasitic/*diagnosis/parasitology/surgery ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Republic of Korea ; Treatment Outcome

From 2006 to 2010, hospitals in Hanoi treated 10 human patients for dirofilariasis. The worms were collected from parasitic places, and identification of the species was completed by morphology and molecular methods. Ten parasites were recovered either from the conjunctiva (n=9) or subcutaneous tissue (n=1). The parasites were 4.0-12.5 cm in length and 0.5-0.6 mm in width. Morphological observations suggested all parasites as Dirofilaria repens. Three of the 10 parasites (1 from subcutaneous tissue and 2 from eyes) were used for molecular confirmation of the species identification. A portion of the mitochondrial cox1 (461 bp) was amplified and sequenced. Nucleotide and amino acid homologies were 95% and 99-100%, respectively, when compared with D. repens (Italian origin, GenBank AJ271614; DQ358814). This is the first report of eye dirofilariasis and the second report of subcutaneous tissue dirofilariasis due to D. repens in Vietnam.
Adult ; Aged ; Animals ; Cyclooxygenase 1/genetics ; Dirofilaria repens/anatomy & histology/genetics/*isolation & purification ; Dirofilariasis/*diagnosis/parasitology/*pathology ; Eye/*parasitology ; Eye Diseases/parasitology ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Molecular Diagnostic Techniques/methods ; Parasitology/methods ; Phylogeny ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Sequence Analysis, DNA ; Sequence Homology ; Skin Diseases/parasitology ; Subcutaneous Tissue/*parasitology ; Vietnam