Pulmonary Ascariasis Resembling Eosinophilic Lung

Abstract

Summary In the lungs of an adult Indian in Singapore who died after a ten-day illness which was tentatively diagnosed as eosinophilic lung, numerous nematode larvae were found. The larvae have been identified morphologically as Ascaris sp., probably A. lumbricoides. It is believed that the larvae were responsible for the disease observed in this case, and that pulmonary ascariasis and eosinophilic lung are separate but clinically similar disease entities. The observations suggest that this and possibly other species of nematode larvae may cause pulmonary symptoms with hypereosinophilia resembling the condition described as eosinophilic lung, and in life the two conditions may be indistinguishable.