This week's fascinating and unusual case was donated by Dr. Vicki Schnadig at University of Texas Medical Branch. The patient is an elderly woman from rural Louisiana who presented with a subcutaneous thigh nodule. Dr. Schnadig's team first performed a fine needle aspirate of the lesion which showed the following laminated spherical structure, but no definitive pathogen:
Following this, the team noted a worm-like object protruding from the aspiration site and pulled it out:
The following are histologic sections of this object:
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Diagnosis?
3 comments:
Sparganosis, the larvarial stage of Spirometra sp.s
Thank you Dr. Bravo, I followed your lead and see the numerous calcarous corpuscles and the eggs. The ribbon like body and enlarged head fits the parasite. The patient must have been a victim of a bad harvest of crawfish.
Florida Fan
After more studies I believe seeing the very thick tegument as well as the longitudinal smooth muscle.
Thank you Dr. Pritt for the tough yet very educational case.
Florida Fan
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