A clinical study of eosinophilic meningoencephalitis caused by angiostrongyliasis.

Objective: To improve the clinician's awareness of angiostrongyliasis.

Methods: The clinical and laboratory data as well as the epidemiological information concerning 18 patients with eosinophilic meningoencephalitis caused by Angiostrongylus cantonensis were analyzed.

Results: All patients had a history of eating raw fresh water snail (Ampularium canaliculatus) before the onset of the disease.

Elevated levels of thymus and activation-regulated chemokine (TARC) in pleural effusion samples from patients infested with Paragonimus westermani.

To investigate the pathogenic mechanisms of eosinophilic pleural effusion in patients with paragonimiasis, we measured the levels of various chemokines including thymus and activation-regulated chemokine (TARC), eotaxin, RANTES and IL-8 in pleural effusion samples. Samples were obtained from 11 patients with Paragonimus westermani infection, six patients with pleural transudate, eight with tuberculous pleurisy and five with empyema. High percentages of eosinophils were detected in pleural fluid (range 9-100%, median 81%) of patients with paragonimiasis.

[A study on cases of good apparent accommodation using an all-distance visual acuity chart and corneal shape analysis].

Purpose: As a part of an attempt to elucidate the mechanism of apparent accommodation, an evaluation was made of patients with good apparent accommodation using an all-distance visual acuity chart and corneal shape analysis.

Materials And Methods: The study was performed on 6 patients (7 eyes) in a good apparent accommodation group and 13 patients (15 eyes) in a poor apparent accommodation group. These were selected from patients who had undergone normal small-incision ultrasonic phacoemulsification and posterior chamber type single focus intraocular lens implantation.

[Anesthetic management for a patient with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease using propofol and nitrous oxide].

A 65-year-old woman who had been diagnosed as having Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMTD) 8 years ago and was scheduled to undergo excision of a spinal tumor in the prone position. General anesthesia using propofol was selected as the anesthetic method in order to avoid possible occurrence of malignant hyperthermia due to inhalation anesthetics. The patient was given 80 mg of propofol for anesthetic induction, and then propofol was infused at a rate of 4-5 mg.

[A case of neurocysticercosis suggestive of a reinfection, 20 years after the initial onset].

A 70-year-old man, who had frequently visited the Southeast Asian countries as a tour conductor, presented convulsion as an initial symptom twenty years ago. A diagnosis of neurocycticercosis was made by a stereotactic brain biopsy. Thereafter, anticonvulsant therapy was initiated, and he continued his travelling without any troubles.

Myocarditis associated with visceral larva migrans due to Toxocara canis.

A 26-year-old man who was diagnosed with myocarditis presented eosinophilia after having eaten raw meat several times before the admission. Since the antibody titer against Toxocara canis was high, we diagnosed that he had visceral larva migrans due to Toxocara canis associated with myocarditis and eosinophilia. He was then treated with oral albendazole and prednisolone for 4 weeks and eosinophil count and hepatic enzymes were normalized along with the decrease in the antibody titer.

Active hepatic capsulitis caused by Paragonimus westermani infection.

Paragonimiasis is an important re-emerging parasitosis in Japan. Although the lungs and pleural cavity are the principal sites affected with the parasite, ectopic infection can occur in unexpected sites such as skin and brain. This case report describes a patient with active hepatic capsulitis due to Paragonimus westermani infection.

Strongyloides venezuelensis: longitudinal distribution of adult worms in the host intestine is influenced by mucosal sulfated carbohydrates.

Mechanisms for the longitudinal distribution of parasitic females of Strongyloides venezuelensis in the host intestine were investigated in mice. Adult worms were mostly recovered from the anterior-most one-third of the small intestine throughout the infection after infective larvae inoculation. Surgically implanted adult worms established well in the small intestinal mucosa, either in the duodenum or in the ileum, whereas a few worms could establish in the large intestine.

Immune-mediated damage is not essential for the expulsion of Nippostrongylus brasiliensis adult worms from the small intestine of mice.

Nippostrongylus brasiliensis adult worms are expelled from the rat small intestine during a primary infection by two steps. First, host immune responses cause damage to the worms, and then a nonspecific inflammatory response initiates expulsion. We have tested the two-step expulsion hypothesis in mice infected with N.

Chronic eosinophilic pneumonia due to visceral larva migrans.

A 38-year-old woman presented with worsening cough, blood eosinophilia, and pulmonary infiltrates. Bronchoalveolar lavage showed 96.4% eosinophils.

A praziquantel-ineffective fascioliasis case successfully treated with triclabendazole.

Human fascioliasis cases in Japan have been reported infrequently and the most appropriate therapy for this disease remains to be determined. This case report describes a patient with the infection unsuccessfully treated with multiple high doses of praziquantel for over 1 year and eventually cured by the administration of triclabendazole in two single doses of 10 mg/kg and 12.5 mg/kg 5 months apart.

Morphology of Gnathostoma spp. isolated from natural hosts in Sinaloa, Mexico.

Gnathostomosis is an emerging public health problem in Sinaloa, Mexico, where an increasing number of human cases have been diagnosed since 1989. The present study was carried out to determine the presence of the parasite in other natural hosts from the area. Birds, fish, opossums and raccoons were captured from local dams and lagoons.

Paragonimiasis: a Japanese perspective.

Paragonimiasis has been considered to be a foodborne zoonosis endemic only in limited areas in the world. Recently, however, patients have been seen almost all over the world because of the increase in number of overseas travelers and the popularization of ethnic dishes in developed countries. If paragonimiasis is misdiagnosed as tuberculosis or lung cancer patients suffer from a considerable burden of long-term hospitalization and unnecessary examinations and treatments.

Clinical features and parasite-specific IgM/IgG antibodies of paragonimiasis patients recently found in Japan.

Clinical features of a total of 30 paragonimiasis westermani patients referred to and diagnosed in our laboratory in 1999 were analyzed retrospectively. Most patients were middle-aged (average: 48 years, range: 13-72 years) with the male/female ratio of 19/11. Over 70% of the patients had respiratory symptom and over 80% had peripheral blood eosinophilia and high serum IgE level.

Current status of food-borne parasitic zoonoses in Japan.

Epidemiological data on food-borne parasitic zoonoses in Japan is obscure because of the lack of legislated registration system for the incidence of such diseases. Attempts were made to draw rough estimates of the current status of food-borne parasitic diseases in Japan by gathering the annual incidence of each disease by literal survey and personal communications. In addition, parasitic diseases referred to and diagnosed in the Department of Parasitology, Miyazaki Medical College during 1999 were analyzed for the causative agents and the route of infection.

High-dose chemotherapy with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is effective for nasal and nasal-type CD56+ natural killer cell lymphomas.

CD56+ natural killer (NK) cell lymphomas occur frequently in the nasal and nasopharyngeal regions and carry a poor prognosis. We have studied seven cases with NK-cell lymphomas. These lymphomas showed the following immunophenotype: CD56+, CD2+, sCD3- and Epstein-Barr virus-encoded small RNAs (EBERs)+.

One confirmed and six suspected cases of cutaneous larva migrans caused by overseas infection with dog hookworm larvae.

Cutaneous larva migrans (CLM) is characterized as creeping eruption/serpiginous erythema and/or mobile erythematous induration on the skin. In Japan, Gnathostoma spp. are the most well known pathogens causing CLM, especially the creeping eruption type.

Case report: Paragonimiasis westermani with seroconversion from immunoglobulin (Ig) m to IgG antibody with the clinical course.

A 66-year-old man visited our hospital with primary complaint of cough. Chest roentgenogram showed slight pleural effusion and pneumothorax in the left lung. Eosinophilia (22.

[A case of myelitis caused by visceral larva migrans due to Ascaris suum presenting only with Lhermitte's sign].

A 27-year-old woman was admitted because of pain radiating through her back on neck flexion that had begun a month ago. She frequently ate raw beef liver. General physical examination revealed no abnormal findings, but she showed Lhermitte's sign neurologically.

Natural resistance of 129/SvJ mice to Strongyloides venezuelensis infection.

The susceptibility of 129/SvJ mice to infection with Strongyloides venezuelensis was compared with that of C57BL/6 mice. After a primary infection, daily egg output in faeces (EPG) from 129/SvJ mice was lower and terminated earlier than that from C57BL/6 mice. Adult worm recovery from the small intestine of 129/SvJ mice on day 7 was also lower than that of C57BL/6 mice.

Adrenomedullin and proadrenomudullin N-terminal 20 peptide (PAMP) are present in human colonic epithelia and exert an antimicrobial effect.

The hypotensive and vasorelaxing peptides adrenomedullin (AM) and its gene-related peptide, proadrenomedullin N-terminal 20 peptide (PAMP), were found to be distributed on the surface of the colonic mucosa. AM and PAMP showed dose-dependent antimicrobial activity against E. coli.

Administration of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor induces hyporesponsiveness to lipopolysaccharide and impairs antigen-presenting function of peripheral blood monocytes.

Objective: The incidence and severity of acute graft-vs-host disease after allogeneic transplantation of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF)-mobilized peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) are not greater than those after conventional bone marrow transplantation despite infusion of more than one log greater number of donor T cells in PBSC. It has been postulated that monocytes from G-CSF-mobilized donors suppress alloreactivity of donor T cells.

Materials And Methods: We investigated the phenotype and function of monocytes in normal individuals receiving 10 microg/kg of G-CSF for 4 days.

A rare case of eosinophilic pleuritis due to sparganosis.

A rare form of sparganosis with eosinophilic pleural effusion is reported. A 62-year-old man was admitted to our hospital with left pleural effusion, and diagnosed immunologically as having sparganosis. Eosinophilia was seen in both peripheral blood and pleural effusion.

[Allogeneic bone marrow transplantation for refractory multiple myeloma: presence of a graft-versus-myeloma effect].

We investigated the graft-versus-myeloma effect (GVM) after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (allo-BMT). Three patients with refractory multiple myeloma (MM) underwent related allo-BMT. Two of the patients showed disappearance of serum M protein 4 and 5 months after transplantation, respectively.