Pleuropulmonary manifestation of paragonimiasis

Chest radiographic findings of 47 patients with pleuropulmonary paragonimiasis were analysed retrospectively. The diagnosis was based on the presence of Paragonimus Westermani (PW) ova from sputum, bronchial washing or needle aspirates (23 patients), PW specific antibody test by micro-ELISA (22 patients) and compliment fixation test (3 patients). 85% of the patients (40/47) showed pulmonary lesion such as focal air space consolidation (24), thin walled cysts (21), transient linear density in early active stage (18), nodular density (12) and burrow tracts (7). CT scans of 6 patients showed worm cysts and burrow tracts clearly and were also helpful in differentiating from lung cancer. 62% of the patients showed pleural lesion such as pleural effusion (17, bilateral in 4 patients), hydropneumothorax (8, bilateral in 6 patients) and pleural thickening (4). Thin walled cysts, migrating nature of the focal patchy pulmonary infiltration, transient linear shadow in the lung periphery, soap bubble appearenced cystic cavities, bilateral spontaneous pneumothoraces are the typical findings of pleuropulmonary paragonimiasis.