A Case of Clonorchiasis with Clinical Presentation of Eosinophilic Pneumonia

Although clonorchiasis is one of the most common parasitic infections in Korea, it is unusual that the disease presents peripheral eosinophilia and pulmonary infiltrations.(eosinophilic pneumonia) A case of clonorchiasis manifested as diffuse nodular pulmonary infiltrations was presented. The patient had a mild to moderate pain on the right upper quadrant of the abdomen, cough, dyspnea, and unknown cause of marked eosinophilia (up to 71.4% of total white blood cell count). The causal organism, clonorchis sinensis was found by the identification of parasite ova in the stool We confirmed eosinophilic pneumonia with bronchoalveolar larvage analysis and transbronchial lung biopsy. With corticosteroid and praziquantel treatment, clinical symtoms and pulmonary infiltrations on the chest roentgenograms had rapidly improved. We report a case of eosinophilic pneumonia related to clonorchiasis and review the pertinent literature.