Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0019209 (hepatomegaly)
 5,798 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Visceral larva migrans is a disease in which the larvae of animal parasites invade human tissues but do not complete their life cycles. The most frequent cause of this illness in children is the dog roundworm, Toxocara canis. A review of the literature, as well as our clinical experience, indicates that there are two forms of clinical expression: one, visceral, and the other, ocular. In general the clinical and laboratory abnormalities (hepatomegaly, recurrent pneumonia, eosinophilia, and hyperglobulinemia) usually associated with visceral disease are absent in children with ocular abnormalities. Conversely, there is a general lack of eye complications in patients with systemic disease. Reasons for these variations in clinical expression are unknown, but immune responses of the host and the antigenic composition of the parasite may be contributing factors.
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PMID:Visceral larva migrans. A review and reassessment indicating two forms of clinical expression: visceral and ocular. 35 38

Toxocariasis is a cosmopolitan infection of dogs and cats with a roundworm resembling Ascaris. Man becomes infected by ingesting eggs from the environment. The infection occurs mainly in children. There are two distinct syndromes: visceral larva migrans and ocular toxocariasis. The author describes the case of a 70 year old Norwegian female with visceral larva migrans. One month after a visit to Spain she developed fever, hepatomegaly and marked eosinophilia. Liver biopsy revealed subacute hepatitis with eosinophilic leucocyte infiltration. Toxocara ELISA was strongly positive. Treatment with albendazol 400 mg b.i.d. and prednisone 10 mg daily for three weeks was successful. A clinical relapse after three months was treated in the same way for one month. Prolonged treatment is recommended. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of visceral larva migrans in an adult Norwegian. Epidemiology, diagnosis and treatment are discussed.
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PMID:[Visceral larva migrans. A rare cause of eosinophilia in adults]. 892 42

Visceral larva migrans (VLM) syndrome caused by Toxocara canis larvae was first described in the 1950s. The role of other nematode larvae, i.e. the pig roundworm Ascaris suum as a causative agent of visceral larva migrans-associated symptoms like general malaise, cough, liver dysfunction, hypereosinophilia with hepatomegaly and/or pneumonia, was discussed controversially during the last decades. Recent serological screening studies for specific A. suum antibodies carried out in the Netherlands and Sweden yielded remarkable high seroprevalences, while a number of case reports from Japan report pulmonal, hepatic and cerebral symptoms caused by A. suum larvae after ingestion of infected raw meat (liver) or contaminated vegetables. We present here a sensitive and specific larval excretory-secretory (E/S) antigen-based immunoblot (As-IB) for the serodiagnosis of A. suum-infected patients suffering from symptoms associated to the VLM syndrome. In total, 34 sera from patients with hypereosinophilia and other clinical symptoms associated to the VLM syndrome tested negative for Toxocara sp. antibodies but positive in our newly established As-IB, 30 sera from healthy volunteers, 53 sera from patients with clinically and serologically confirmed toxocarosis and other helminthoses as well as 3 sera from patients with intestinal ascariosis due to Ascaris lumbricoides were included in the study. When evaluated with 30 sera from healthy volunteers and 53 sera from patients suffering from different helminthoses, the calculated specificity of our new As-IB is 95%. Problems hampering the establishment of simple serological screening tests for specific A. suum antibodies, like extensive antigenic similarities between the nematodes Ascaris and Toxocara or the absence of suitable experimental animals, are discussed. We assume that specific serological testing for antibodies of A. suum is very important for the treatment of individual patients on one hand and seroepidemiological investigations will help to clarify routes of transmission on the other hand. Further studies will be necessary to learn more about the extent of A. suum as a causative agent of the VLM syndrome and the role of pigs and their manure as the main source of human Ascaris infections in Austria and other industrialized countries.
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PMID:Immunoblot for the detection of Ascaris suum-specific antibodies in patients with visceral larva migrans (VLM) syndrome. 2536 10