title: A case of breast sparganosis.
abstract: A 29-year-old Korean woman visited the Department of Surgery in MizMedi Hospital with a palpable itching mass on the right breast that had existed for the past 7 months. She had no history to eat either frogs or snakes, but had the history of drinking impure water. Sonography revealed a serpiginous hypoechoic tubular structure associated with partial fat necrosis in breast parenchymal layer and subcutaneous fat layer. It also revealed oval cystic lesions. At operation, an ivory white opaque ribbon-like worm that measured 16.5 cm in length and 0.5 cm in width was extracted. Anti-sparganum specific serum IgG level in the patient's serum (absorbance = 0.71), measured by ELISA, was found to be significantly higher than those of normal controls (cut off point = 0.21). Sonography and ELISA appear to be helpful to diagnose sparganosis. Breast sparganosis is rarely found throughout the world.
authors.affiliation: Department of Parasitology and Institute of Tropical Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul 120-752, Korea.
authors.forename: Seobo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sim
authors.forename: Jai-Kyung
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: You
authors.forename: In-Yong
authors.initials: IY
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Kyung-Il
authors.initials: KI
authors.lastname: Im
authors.forename: Tai-Soon
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Yong
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D000909:Antibodies, Helminth / Q000097:blood; D001940:Breast / Q000469:parasitology*; D001941:Breast Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000469:parasitology*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood; D013031:Sparganosis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000469:parasitology*; D013032:Sparganum / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification; D016217:Ultrasonography, Mammary
chemical_list: D000909:Antibodies, Helminth; D007074:Immunoglobulin G