PULMONARY DIROFILARIASIS—A CASE IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA1

Abstract

A case of pulmonary dirofilariasis is described in a patient who had never been out of Australia. The patient probably contracted her disease in the northern or north‐western part of Australia, where she had lived for most of her life. Her dog may have died from the same disease. Numerous microfilariæ were found in the blood, and adult Dirofilaria immitis worms in the right side of the heart of a dog from Darwin, where canine dirofilariasis is endemic. The lobulated shape of the patient's lesion was unusual. The positive reaction to the toxocara fluorescent antibody test suggests a subclinical infection by that worm, and indicates the likelihood of endemic toxocariasis in Western Australia.