18-FDG Uptake in Pulmonary Dirofilariasis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3941/jrcr.v9i4.1869Keywords:
Pulmonary dirofilariasis, zoonoses, canine heartworm, solitary pulmonary nodule, Dirofilaria, D. immitis, zoonoticAbstract
Solitary pulmonary nodules are a common finding on chest radiography and CT. We present the case of an asymptomatic 59-year-old male found to have a 13 mm left upper lobe nodule on CT scan. The patient was asymptomatic and the CT was performed to follow up mediastinal and hilar lymphadenopathy that had been stable on several previous CT scans. He had a history of emphysema and reported a 15 pack-year smoking history. PET-CT was performed which demonstrated mild 18-FDG uptake within the nodule. Given his age and smoking history, malignancy was a consideration and he underwent a wedge resection. Pathological examination revealed a necrobiotic granulomatous nodule with a central thrombosed artery containing a parasitic worm with internal longitudinal ridges and abundant somatic muscle, consistent with pulmonary dirofilariasis. Dirofilaria immitis, commonly known as the canine heartworm, rarely affects humans. On occasion it can be transmitted to a human host by a mosquito bite. There are two major clinical syndromes in humans: pulmonary dirofilariasis and subcutaneous dirofilariasis. In the pulmonary form, the injected larvae die before becoming fully mature and become lodged in the pulmonary arteries.Downloads
Published
2015-04-19
Issue
Section
Nuclear Medicine / Molecular Imaging
License
The publisher holds the copyright to the published articles and contents. However, the articles in this journal are open-access articles distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 License, which permits reproduction and distribution, provided the original work is properly cited. The publisher and author have the right to use the text, images and other multimedia contents from the submitted work for further usage in affiliated programs. Commercial use and derivative works are not permitted, unless explicitly allowed by the publisher.