title: A surgically confirmed case of breast sparganosis showing characteristic mammography and ultrasonography findings.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: 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.
authors.forename: Jae-Hwan
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Jee-Won
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Chai
authors.forename: Nariya
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: Nam-Sun
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Paek
authors.forename: Sang-Mee
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Guk
authors.forename: Eun-Hee
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Jong-Yil
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Chai
mesh_terms: D001941:Breast Diseases / Q000469:parasitology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D004169:Diphyllobothriasis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000469:parasitology / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged