Objective: To improve the understanding of pleural sparganosis by analyzing a clinical case and literature review.
Methods: The clinical data of a patient with pleural sparganosis diagnosed by immunoserology and pathology was analyzed. The data of 6 cases from literature reports regarding pleural sparganosis were reviewed through database including PubMed, VIP, Wanfang and China Knowledge Resource Integrated Database. The clinical characteristics, diagnosis and treatment of the 7 cases were summarized and analyzed.
Results: A 38-year-old man was admitted to our hospital with right pleural effusion, and received the final diagnosis of pleural sparganosis according to increase of eosinophils in blood and plural effusion, positive sparganum-mansoni antibody in serum, and parasite bodies in pleural tissues biopsied with medical thoracoscopy. The patient was treated successfully with consecutive three-day doses of praziquantel (75 mg × kg⁻¹ × d⁻¹). The documents reported 6 cases of pleural sparganosis on the database of PubMed, Wafang,VIP and China Knowledge Resource Integrated Database. Pleural effusion was found in 5 cases by chest radiograph or CT.Serum sparganum-mansoni antibody assays were strongly positive in 5 cases, and sparganosis bodies were confirmed by pleural histological findings in 3 cases. Two patients received video-assisted thoracic surgery examinations. Six patients recovered with the treatment of praziquantel.
Conclusions: Pleural sparganosis is a rare disease. Patients with increase of eosinophils in blood and pleural effusion should receive serum sparganum-mansoni antibody test to avoid misdiagnosis of pleural sparganosis. Medical thoracoscopy plays an important role in the diagnosis of pleural sparganosis.