Inactive clonorchiasis: cholangiographic appearances

Experimental Clonorchiasis in Dogs: CT Findings before and after Treatment

“…In general, CT has been considered to be of little value in the delineation of flukes (18,25). To the best of our knowledge, the visualization of flukes per se at CT has not previously been reported except by Lim (29).…”

“…CT yields comprehensive diagnostic information about the entire biliary tree, and CT findings such as diffuse uniform dilatation of the small intrahepatic bile ducts without a focal obstructing lesion have been considered to be pathognomonic of clonorchiasis (18,22,24,25). Dilatation of the bile ducts extends up to the periphery of the liver, and sometimes the peripheral portions of the bile ducts dilate to a greater degree, resulting in a clublike appearance.…”

“…This rate of detection with CT is better than that offered with fecal examination (because eggs can only be found in stool about 25 days after infection [3]) and is comparable to the detection rate with high-resolution US, which can reveal minimally infected cases in the 3rd week after infection (26). However, early detection has little clinical importance, because most human infections are chronic (3,18).…”

“…Therefore, a more elaborate method is necessary for the diagnosis of active clonorchiasis (11,18). In addition to offering a high sensitivity, any new diagnostic method should reflect the activity of the disease and enable the avoidance of false-positive diagnoses in cured cases.…”

“…screening of the abdomen for other purposes, because symptoms of clonorchiasis are vague and nonspecific (13,17,18).…”