Pulmonary lesions in visceral toxocariasis in children in the phthisiatric practice (clinical case)

Abstract

Background. The clinical and radiological picture of pulmonary tuberculosis has many common features with a large number of diseases. Therefore, differential diagnosis is very important when detecting tuberculosis. The purpose of the work: on the example of a clinical case to present the complexity of the differential diagnosis between pulmonary lesion in visceral toxocariasis and tuberculosis in children. Results. The child was diagnosed with an infiltrate in the third segment of the left lung with lesions of the intrathoracic lymph nodes, which is characteristic of the primary tuberculosis. The volatility of the infiltrate was not determined. All general blood test hadn’t shown an increase in eosinophils and white blood cells. According to the literature data, the appearance of persistent and prolonged eosinophilia with the development of eosinophilic leukemoid reactions of the blood, an increase in the level of leukocytes are the main and one of the constant manifestations of toxocariasis. The child was diagnosed with moderate hepatomegaly, which is cha­racteristic for both diseases. The patient was registered at a pediatric tuberculosis clinic due to a shift in tuberculin tests. At the time of hospitalization, there were not reasons to suspect visceral toxocariasis. Due to the examination data, first of all the absence of bacterial excretion and negative tuberculin tests, and the pre­sence in the child’s house of the dogs and cats, it was decided to recommend the consultation of the infectionist to exclude any parasitic disease. At the end, the correct diagnosis was established in this child at time and the necessary treatment was prescribed. Conclusions. This clinical case demonstrates the difficulties of differential diagnosis of visceral toxocariasis in lung lesion and tuberculosis. First of all, this is due to the asymptomatic clinical picture of toxocariasis, the diagnosis of which was established by X-ray data, blood test for IgG antibodies to Toxocara and epidemiological history. Given the fact that toxocariasis includes a large spectrum of masks of various diseases, and children who are infected by Toxocara do not have specific clinical symptoms, doctors should remember to prescribe the additional examination for the presence of parasitic diseases, including toxocariasis, especially if pets live in the child’s home.