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

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 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

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

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

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

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 is an infection by sparganum, the generic term for the migrating plerocercoid larva of a tapeworm of the species Spirometra. The clinical appearance of sparganosis is usually a soft palpable, sometimes migratory, subcutaneous nodule, and microscopically, an elongated tract-like cavity, with or without a parasite body associated with eosinophilic infiltration, may be seen. Herein we present a case of sparganosis with eosinophilic panniculitis, which developed in a patient who had suffered from rectal adenocarcinoma about 5- months before presenting to our department with the skin lesion.
Adenocarcinoma ; Cestoda ; Eosinophils* ; Humans ; Larva ; Panniculitis* ; Parasites ; Rectal Neoplasms* ; Skin ; Sparganosis* ; Sparganum ; Spirometra

Sparganosis is a parasitic infection caused by the sparganum, the plercercoid of the genus Spirometra. The preoperative diagnosis of breast sparganosis is difficult in most cases because it is a rare parasitic infection less than 2% of all cases. We report a 62-year-old woman case of breast sparganosis that were confirmed by surgical removal of worms from the right breast. The radiologic images of the patient also revealed characteristic features of breast sparganosis. The patient described the migrating palpable breast mass, which strongly suggested the possibility of breast sparganosis. The treatment of choice and confirmative diagnosis for sparganosis are complete surgical extraction of the sparganum irrespective of infected site. Inspection of the mass site with detailed medical history and radiological examinations are important for preoperative diagnosis of sparganosis patients.
Breast* ; Diagnosis ; Female ; Humans ; Mammography ; Middle Aged ; Sparganosis* ; Sparganum ; Spirometra ; Ultrasonography

BACKGROUNDThe stage-specific expression of genes is one of the most characteristics of parasites. It has been found that a lot of genes of Spriometra erinaceieuropaei are specifically expressed in pleroceroid in large amount, but not expressed when the plerocercoid development into adult worm. The study is to screen other stage-specific ecpression genes of plerocercoid of Spirtmetra erinceieuropaei.

METHODSRNA was separately extracted by acid guanidinium thiocyanate-phenol-chloroform from plerocercoids and adult worms of Spirometra erinaceieuropaei, DNA contaminated in the RNA was digested by RNase-free DNase. After the RNA was reverse transcripted to cDNA using T12MA, T12MC, T12MG and T12MT anchor-primers, PCR was done using the same T12MN and one random primer with alpha 35S-dATP in the system. The PCR products were fractionated on an 8% denatured polyacrylamide gel. Differential bands of the plerocercoid found in the gel were cut out, amplified by PCR and sequenced. Northern hybridization was used to identify the stage-specific expression genes.

RESULTSEleven differential bands were selected from the gel and classified into 3 kinds of gene fragments by hybridization, after they were amplified by PCR. Fragments 1 (238 bp) and 2 (383 bp), were confirmed by Northern hybridization, as being expressed in the plerocercoid. However, fragment 3 (433 bp), was expressed in both the plerocercoid and the adult worm. Data from the 3 gene fragments underwent homological analysis in GenBank. The sequence which was homologous with fragments 1 and 2 was not found, but fragment 3 had high homology with many kinds of 28S rRNA.

CONCLUSIONSThe gene expressions of plerocercoids are different from adult worms because they live in different hosts. Two types of different gene fragments from the plerocercoid were found by mRNA differential display technique.