A surgically confirmed case of breast sparganosis showing characteristic mammography and ultrasonography findings.
A case of breast sparganosis was confirmed by surgical excision of a worm (fragmented into 5 pieces) in a 59-year-old Korean woman suffering from a palpable mass in the left breast. Mammography and ultrasonography characteristically revealed the presence of several well-defined, isodense and hypoechoic tubular masses, in the upper quadrant of the left breast, each mass consisting of a continuous cord- or worm-like structure. During surgery, a long segment of an actively moving sparganum of Spirometra sp. and 4 small fragments of the same worm, giving a total length of 20.3 cm, were extracted from the upper outer quadrant of the left breast and the axillary region. The infection source remains unclear, because the patient denied ingesting any snake or frog meat or drinking untreated water.
Park
Jae-Hwan
JH
Department of Parasitology and Tropical Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, and Institute of Endemic Diseases, Seoul National University Medical Research Center, Seoul 110-799, Korea.
Chai
Jee-Won
JW
Cho
Nariya
N
Paek
Nam-Sun
NS
Guk
Sang-Mee
SM
Shin
Eun-Hee
EH
Chai
Jong-Yil
JY
D001941:Breast Diseases / Q000469:parasitology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D004169:Diphyllobothriasis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000469:parasitology / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged