Echinococcus in man and dog in the same household in New York City.

Abstract

Recurrent spells of abdominal pain in a woman, on the basis of history, physical examination, laboratory tests, and roentgenography, led to a diagnosis of Echinococcus cyst of the liver. This was confirmed at laparotomy, when the intact cyst was removed. Several months later a second cyst had to be removed. In a second patient, a boy of 16, severe symptoms after a sharp blow on the abdomen were found to have been caused by the rupture of an Echinococcus cyst of the liver. Both patients had visited in Greece, where the parasite is highly endemic, but they had also been in contact with a dog that had been imported from Greece and was found to be infected. Of the laboratory tests used, the eosinophil count was the least useful, since it gave normal figures in both cases. The intradermal Casoni test was more reliable than the complement-fixation test.