A Case of Human Fascioliasis with Special Reference to Immunological Diagnosis.

A case of human fascioliasis with special reference to immunological diagnosis was reported. This is the 31th case report of human fascioliasis in Japan. The patient was a 41-year-old woman who has been living in the Goto Islands of Nagasaki Prefecture and has never been abroad. She has engaged in agriculture and in breeding of cows till the time of admission to a hospital. She has had the swelling of liver, and C. T. scan of the liver revealed multiple space occupying lesion. She was diagnosed to be the bile duct carcinoma at the time of admission, but she showed a high degree of eosinophilia (66% to 51%), so she was also suspected to be suffered from the parasitological disease. No worm egg was found in the stool of the patient, but Ouchterlony's double diffusion test showed the patient to be fascioliasis. Namely, cross reactions were observed among wide range of helminth antigens in the double diffusion test, but these reactions were eliminated by the absorption of patient serum with C-substance, and the patient serum showed a sharp and strong precipitine line only against the Fasciola hepatica antigen. Eggs of F. hepatica (118 to 128μm×65 to 80μm) were also found in the bile of the patient. The patient was given bithionol 2,000mg per day on alternate days for 20 days and this treatment was treated 3 times. After treatments, eosinophilia disappeared gradually and many cysts in the liver became smaller, but the largest cyst never changed