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Pulmonary paragonimiasis is a food-borne zoonosis with a wide variety of radiologic findings, which sometimes can be confused with tuberculosis and carcinoma. Therefore, differential diagnosis is always warranted. A 43-year-old male farmer, with productive cough, blood-tinged sputum and chest pain, as well as patchy consolidation and pleural effusions in chest computer tomography, was misdiagnosed of community-acquired pneumonia and tuberculosis. Complete blood cell count, sputum smear and culture, chest computer tomography, thoracoscopy, and biopsy. The diagnosis of pulmonary paragonimiasis was established due to the finding of Charcot-Leyden crystals in the pleural necrosis, and antibodies against Paragonimus westermani in enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Paragonimiasis should be considered as a possibility in the differential diagnosis of tuberculosis. Thoracoscopy is an effective and valuable technology that can help make an accurate diagnosis.

Original publication

DOI

10.1097/md.0000000000003436

Type

Journal article

Journal

Medicine

Publication Date

04/2016

Volume

95

Addresses

From the Department of Respiratory Diseases (JL, M-YW, HZ, SY, B-ML, Z-AL); and Critical Care Medicine (DL), West China School of Medicine and West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.

Keywords

Sputum, Animals, Humans, Paragonimus westermani, Tuberculosis, Paragonimiasis, Pneumonia, Pleurisy, Diagnosis, Differential, Diagnostic Errors, Tomography, X-Ray Computed, Thoracoscopy, Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay, Adult, Male