Alex Aiken's blog, started when I was working in Gambia in 2005...

Saturday, August 12, 2006

mystery chest x-ray competition

I'm now settling into my job at HTD (Hospital for Tropical Diseases), though unfortunately I've had to start by going straight into a week of nights. It isn't too bad so far, and there have been some pretty interesting admissions.

I'm currently a bit mystified by one guy who came in today, so I thought I'd make this into a kind of Tropical Quiz question - hopefully someone will read this and e-mail me the diagnosis...

So: 22yr old caucasian man, recently returned from 2 months in Uganda. He suffered with malaria while out there, treated successfully with quinine. Also self-medicated with praziquantel for possible schistosomasis after swimming in high-risk water. No sexual activity whilst in Uganda. On return to UK, he has been having some vague fevers, but otherwise not too bad - not coughing or losing weight. He's normally fit+well.

At HTD, he has been found to have an eosinophilia (0.8) and also this bizarre chest x-ray:


Alternative settings to show bizarre lesions...



So not actually sure what he may have. My top ideas so far are
1. Schistosomiasis - ?Loefflers lungs appearance?
2. some other wormy-type thing eg Paragonamiasis, strongyloides
3. TB
4. ?? Lymph nodes

I hope some clever doctors out there can see these x-rays and make a spot diagnosis... Prize of a special mention on my blog for anyone who seends a sensible suggestion !
I'm just going to wait for all the tests to start giving an idea.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Very interesting case. Just a quick note to underline that praziquantel is active against the adult stage of Schisto, and nearly uneffective in killing cercariae after introduction in body fluid trought the skin. In other words, there is no chemoprophilaxis agaist schisto with praziquantel or other antihelmintics. A guy with fever reporting to have taken pills after swimming in high risk waters remains at high risk to have katayama fever.
Good luke for your great and exciting work
Luca Sarti, Italy

9:44 pm

 

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