A coiled nematode, which was removed surgically from a Thai woman, was consulted to the authors in July 1987. She was known to suffer from meningoencephalitis since she was in Thailand. Numerous eosinophils were detected from her CSF. The worm was 12.3 mm long and 0.9 mm wide. It had a head bulb beset with eight rows of spines, a cervical constriction, esophagus, cervical sacs, dark intestine and testis. Cuticle of anterior half of the worm was covered with numerous spines. The spines at anterior part was stout and had 3-4 tips, but they became slender, shorter, single tipped and sparser and finally they disappeared posteriorly. Cuticular spines reappeared at tail which had 4 pairs of pedunculated papillae. By above morphological characteristics, the worm was identified as an adult male of Gnathostoma spinigerum. The present case is the first authentic case of imported intracranial gnathostomiasis in Korea, although clinical informations of the case were obtained limitedly.
parasitology-helminth-nematoda ; encephalitis ; gnathostomiasis ; Gnathostoma spinigerum ; case report ; Thailand