A 65-year old Korean man, living in Mokpo-city, Jeollanam-do, Republic of Korea, visited a local clinic complaining of right upper quadrant pain and indigestion. At colonoscopy, he was diagnosed as having a carcinoma of the ascending colon, and thus, a palliative right hemicolectomy was performed. Subsequently, an adult fluke of Gymnophalloides seoi was incidentally found in a surgical pathology specimen of the lymph node around the colon. The worm was found to have invaded gut lymphoid tissue, with characteristic morphologies of a large oral sucker, a small ventral sucker, and a ventral pit surrounded by strong muscle fibers. This is the first reported case of mucosal tissue invasion by G. seoi in the human intestinal tract.
Trematode Infections/diagnosis/parasitology/*pathology ; Trematoda/*isolation & purification/ultrastructure ; Male ; Lymphoid Tissue/*parasitology ; Korea ; Intestinal Diseases, Parasitic/diagnosis/*parasitology/pathology ; Humans ; Colonic Diseases/*parasitology ; Colon/*parasitology/pathology/surgery ; Animals ; Aged

A 33-year-old Korean man visited a medical clinic with complaints of throat discomfort and pain for one week. The symptoms occurred one day after eating raw brackish water fish, perch. Endoscopy revealed a fluke, about 5 mm in length, attaching to and peristaltically moving on the surface of the mucosa at the arytenoid region of the larynx. Microscopically, the testes were triangular, tandem, and separated by the uterus. The ovary and cirrus pouch were placed apart from median line between testes. Numerous blood cells were observed in the ceca. The worm was identified to be Clinostomum complanatum. This is the second human case of clinostomiasis in Korea.
Adult ; Animal Structures/anatomy & histology ; Animals ; Endoscopy ; Foodborne Diseases/*diagnosis/parasitology ; Humans ; Korea ; Larynx/parasitology/pathology ; Male ; Microscopy ; Pharynx/parasitology/pathology ; Trematoda/anatomy & histology/*isolation & purification ; Trematode Infections/*diagnosis/parasitology

In November 2007, a 46-year-old male Thai patient presented with chronic abdominal pain for over 3 years. Colonoscopy revealed a small parasite of about 2 x 1 mm in size attached to the cecum mucosa. The worm was removed endoscopically, fixed, and stained for morphological observations. The specimen was identified as Anchitrema sanguineum (Digenea: Anchitrematidae), a trematode first reported in a reptile, Chamaeleo vulgaris, from Egypt, and then sporadically found in the intestines of insectivorous bats and other mammals. The patient was treated with praziquantel but no more worms were found in his stool. His symptoms improved slightly but not cured completely. It remains unclear whether the chronic abdominal pain of the patient was caused by this trematode infection. Whatever is the pathogenicity of this trematode, this is the first human case of A. sanguineum infection in the literature.
Abdominal Pain/*etiology ; Animals ; Antiprotozoal Agents/therapeutic use ; Cecum/parasitology ; Colonoscopy ; Humans ; Intestinal Mucosa/parasitology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Praziquantel/therapeutic use ; Thailand ; Trematoda/*isolation & purification ; Trematode Infections/*diagnosis/drug therapy/pathology