Human sparganosis in Korea was discussed on the bases of five human cases experienced by the present authors and 58 case records already reported by many previous authors, in aspects of epidemiology and clinical features. Sparganosis is not infrequent tissue helminthiasis now in Korea and the incidence has been evidently increased during past 10 years. It might be interpreted that improved medical delivery system and health care exposed the hidden but prevalent disease. The distribution of sparganosis in Korea is apparently subdivided into three major endemic areas; Kyunggi Do, Kyungsang Do and Hamkyung Nam Do. Although scanty in other areas of Korea, the distribution of this disease is presumably throughout the whole peninsula of Korea except Cheju Do. The majority of human cases of sparganosis in Korea has revealed raw consuming of snakes for treatment of tuberculosis, syphilis and joint pain, for tonics and for the belief of special nutrition among very limited group of Korean population. Because of this kinds of mode of infection, comprising four fifths of all cases, the majority of cases detected were male adult consisting of about 70% of total cases. And drinking of untreated water in rural area where no protective, sanitary measures for water sources were provided in the past, seems another important causes of infection especially in women and children in Korea. Thus it may be concluded that sparganosis in Korea is concluded by eating of infective stages per os voluntarily or involuntarily, but not through the direct invasion. Clinically, subcutaneous mass or lump was the most frequent problem in those patients and those masses were associated with inflammatory signs. By the anatomical location of the lesion, some peculiar manifestations could be developed as in orbital, abdominal, urethral, ureteral and vertebral cases. And the lesions could be complicated by haemorrhage or abscess formations. The larval worms hitherto collected in Korea has been identified tentatively as Sparganum mansoni because neither branched larvae nor Sparganum proliferum were ever reported.
parasitology-helminth-trematode ; Spirometra sp. ; sparganum ; case reoprt ; epidemiology

Distribution of Sparganum mansoni in 7 species of terrestrial snakes in Wonju City was surveyed. All kinds of snakes were found to be served as intermediate hosts of this larval worm except Elaphe schrenkii which has already been recorded as important host. Authors believe that Zamenis spinalis was firstly recorded as intermediate host of Sparganum mansoni in Korea. Some aspects of infection status, host-parasite relations and sources of human infection were briefly discussed.
parasitology-helminth-cestoda-Spirometra sp. ; sparganum ; sparganosis ; human infection

Two cases of human infection by adult Spirometra erinacei were proved by collection of worms in Korea. The patients were 24 and 21-year old males residing in a mountainous village in Kangwon-do. They had the clinical complaints of abdominal pain and epigastric discomfort, revealing the diphyllobothriid eggs, 53~59 x 37~42 micrometer in size, in their stools. They were treated with 500 mg atabrine and purgated with magnesium salts, and 3~4 hours later several chains of tapeworm segments were recovered from the diarrheal stools. The recovered worms revealed the morphological characteristics of spiral-form or coiled uteri, separated vaginal opening from the cirrus sac, incorporated seminal vesicle into the cirrus sac, distribution of testes at the junction between proglottids, asymmetrical eggs with one pointed eggs, etc. and were identified as Spirometra erinacei(Rudolphi, 1819). The cases had the history of eating raw flesh of the snakes and these are considered the source of infection.
parasitology-helminth-cestoda ; case report ; Spirometra erinacei ; atabrine

Sparganosis is a parasite infestation caused by the larval stage of Spirometra erinacei. Ingestion of raw or undercooked flesh of numerous intermediate hosts results in human infection. Sparganum infestation of human body was reported over 120 cases including urogenital lesions in Korean literatures since 1924. But, no case of sparganosis in the spermatic cord was reported until now. We experienced a case of sparganosis in the spermatic cord.
Eating ; Human Body ; Humans ; Parasites ; Sparganosis* ; Sparganum ; Spermatic Cord* ; Spirometra

To observed whether the specific IgG antibody test using ELISA was useful in diagnosis of presently ill patients of paragonimiasis, a total of 95 sera were tested. The sera were collected from 21 egg positive cases, 8 from positive reactors of intradermal test, 7 from Clonorchis infected, 9 from other parasitic diseases and 50 from apparently non-infected cases. By the result, the sensitivity of the test was 86% and the specificity was 100%. There were no cross reactions between Paragonimus antigen and other parastic infections. Specific IgG antibody test by micro-ELISA was concluded to be useful for mass screening of the presently ill paragonimiasis in the field.
parasitology-helminth-cestoda ; Spirometra sp. ; sparganum ; sparganosis ; immunology ; diagnosis ; ELISA

Sparganosis is a parasitic infestation caused by the larval stage of Spirometra erinacei. Human infection results from ingestion of raw or undercooked flesh of any of the numerous intermediate hosts and from application of such flesh as poultices. Sparganosis have been reported from orbit and bulbar conjunctiva. But, urogenital infestation of Sparganum is rarely observed. We report an additional case of the sparganum infestation in the right scrotum.
Conjunctiva ; Eating ; Humans ; Orbit ; Scrotum* ; Sparganosis* ; Sparganum ; Spirometra

Sparganosis is an infection caused by the migrating larvae of the cestode genus Spirometra. The most common clinical presentation of a sparganosis is a slow-growing, sometimes migratory, sub-cutaneous mass. In this report, a case of eosinophilic panniculitis by sparganum in a Korean woman is presented. The diagnosis was confirmed from the histopathologic findings, the micro-ELISA tests and a living sparganum derived from the patient while excising the new lesion
Cestoda ; Diagnosis ; Eosinophils* ; Female ; Humans ; Larva ; Panniculitis* ; Sparganosis* ; Sparganum ; Spirometra

Spargana were collected from human and frogs in Liaoning and Hubei Provinces, China. PCR amplification and direct sequencing of A cox1 fragment was PCR-amplified from genomic DNA extracted from 7 specimens (5 from humans and 2 from frogs). The cox1 fragment (390 bp) showed 97–100% similarity to the reference sequence of S. erinaceieuropaei and 88–89% to the reference sequence of S. decipiens. There were 1–12 bases different between these worms, but no obvious genetic variation (0–3.3%) to the references. There was little difference of cox1 gene between sparganum samples of humans and frogs (1–3%). This study is the first report on S. erinaceieuropaei spargana from humans in Liaoning and Hubei Provinces.
China ; DNA ; Genetic Variation ; Humans ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Sparganum ; Spirometra

Sparganosis in humans is caused by migrating larvae of the cestode Spirometra. Humans are considered the second intermediate host that are incidentally infected. Sparganosis usually infestates the subcutaneous tissues and visceral organs have rarely been reported to be involved. A case is herein reported however, a 67-year old female patient with sparganosis in the gastric wall and perigastric region, presented as a submucosal tumor upon gastrofiberscopy. The diagnosis was made after surgery by the pathologic findings determining a characteristic degenerated Sparganum and multiple tunnel-shape cavities surrounded by many inflammatory cells and necrotic materials.
Aged ; Cestoda ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Gastroscopy* ; Humans ; Larva ; Sparganosis* ; Sparganum ; Spirometra ; Subcutaneous Tissue

Sparganosis is a parasitic infestation of human by a laval form of an animal tapeworm, genus Spirometra. Sparganum is usually found in the subcutaneous tissues of various parts of the body, but other sites, such as the orbit, brain, and the abdominal viscera, have been recorded. We experienced a case of sparganosis in the testicular parenchyme and report this case with review of literatures.
Animals ; Brain ; Cestoda ; Humans ; Orbit ; Sparganosis* ; Sparganum ; Spirometra ; Subcutaneous Tissue ; Testis* ; Viscera