Pulmonary Infiltrates, Asthma and Eosinophilia Due toAscaris suumInfestation in Man

Abstract

Four male students who had been exposed to a massive dose of Ascaris suum ova, a parasite that is endemic to pigs, manifested the clinical picture of pulmonary infiltrates with eosinophilia and asthma. The two patients with the most widespread pulmonary infiltrates also had elevated IgE immunoglobulin levels, IgM precipitating antibody to A. suum antigen, and the most marked eosinophilia, thus suggesting the participation of an immune reaction in the pathogenesis of both the pulmonary lesions and the eosinophilia. The immune response may also have had a protective function since the patients with the most marked immune response to the ascaris antigen also had a minimal worm burden.