Kaji K, Yoshiji H, Yoshikawa M, Yamazaki M, Ikenaka Y, Noguchi R, Sawai M, Ishikawa M, Mashitani T, Kitade M, Kawaratani H, Uemura M, Yamao J, Fujimoto M, Mitoro A, Toyohara M, Yoshida M, Fukui H. Eosinophilic cholecystitis along with pericarditis caused by Ascaris lumbricoides: A case report. World J Gastroenterol 2007; 13(27): 3760-3762 [PMID: 17659742 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v13.i27.3760]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Hitoshi Yoshiji, MD, PhD, Third Department of Internal Medicine, Nara Medical University, Shijo-cho 840, Kashihara, Nara 634-8522, Japan. yoshijih@naramed-u.ac.jp
Article-Type of This Article
Case Report
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Kosuke Kaji, Hitoshi Yoshiji, Masaharu Yamazaki, Yasuhide Ikenaka, Ryuichi Noguchi, Masayoshi Sawai, Masatoshi Ishikawa, Tsuyoshi Mashitani, Mitsuteru Kitade, Hideto Kawaratani, Masahito Uemura, Junichi Yamao, Masao Fujimoto, Akira Mitoro, Masahisa Toyohara, Motoyuki Yoshida, Hiroshi Fukui, Third Department of Internal Medicine, Nara Medical University, Nara, Japan
Masahide Yoshikawa, Department of Parasitology, Nara Medical University, Nara, Japan
Author contributions: All authors contributed equally to the work.
Correspondence to: Hitoshi Yoshiji, MD, PhD, Third Department of Internal Medicine, Nara Medical University, Shijo-cho 840, Kashihara, Nara 634-8522, Japan. yoshijih@naramed-u.ac.jp
Received: March 16, 2007 Revised: April 3, 2007 Accepted: April 7, 2007 Published online: July 21, 2007
Abstract
Although the etiology of eosinophilic cholecystitis is still obscure, the postulated causes include allergies, parasites, hypereosinophilic syndrome, and eosinophilic gastroenteritis. It is sometimes accompanied by several complications, but a simultaneous onset with pericarditis is very rares. A 28-year-old woman complained of acute right hypocondrial pain and dyspnea associated with systemic eruption. Several imaging modalities revealed acute cholecystitis and pericarditis with massive pericardial effusion. A marked peripheral blood eosinophilia was observed, and the eruption was diagnosed as urticaria. Her serum had a high titer of antibody against Ascaris lumbricoides. Treatment with albendazole drastically improved all clinical manifestations along with normalization of the imaging features and eosinophilia. We report herein a rare case of simultaneous onset of acute cholecystitis and pericarditis associated with a marked eosinophilia caused by parasitic infection.
