title: Magnetic resonance imaging of alveolar echinococcosis experimentally induced in the rat lung.
abstract: Pulmonary alveolar echinococcosis (AE) caused by the metacestode of Echinococcus multilocularis is a lethal zoonosis and is a lesion secondarily induced by hematogenous dissemination from hepatic AE lesions. In the present study, a hematogenous pulmonary AE model was experimentally induced in rats by the injection of echinococcal larval tissue homogenate to the tail vein, and then the pathological and diagnostic aspects of pulmonary AE were examined by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Histological primary, mature and degenerated AE lesions were observed 5, 18 and 50 weeks after injection, respectively. These lesions were discriminated as signal-void, hypointense and hyperintense regions in T1-weighted MRI (T1WI), respectively. The change in signal intensity in T1WI might reflect the content of proteinaceous fluid as a result of AE cyst degeneration. Western blot analysis of sera with antibodies of two epitopes (Em18 and Em16) of E. multilocularis provided evidence for AE infection in the early stage. T1WI in combination with Western blot analysis could possibility become definitive and early signs of hematogenous pulmonary AE infection.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Radiation Biology, Graduate School of Veterinary Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0818, Japan.
authors.forename: Taketoshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Asanuma
authors.forename: Tokiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kawahara
authors.forename: Osamu
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Inanami
authors.forename: Minoru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nakao
authors.forename: Kazuhiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nakaya
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.forename: Mitsuyoshi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Takiguchi
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hashimoto
authors.forename: Mikinori
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kuwabara
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015153:Blotting, Western; D004445:Echinococcosis, Pulmonary / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology*; D048210:Echinococcus multilocularis; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D011650:Pulmonary Alveoli / Q000469:parasitology / Q000473:pathology*; D051381:Rats; D013997:Time Factors