Trichinosis: epidemiology, clinical features and diagnosis (author's transl)

Abstract

After ingestion of wild boar meat 58 patients developed typical clinical signs and symptoms of trichinosis. All patients had marked blood eosinophilia. In 45% of the patients GOT and GPT and in 62% HBDH were moderately increased, while in 76% LDH and in 86% creatine-kinase showed abnormally high values. CK-MB was increased in three patients. 92% of muscle biopsies showed typical morphological changes in skeletal muscles. Latexagglutination, complement-fixation and agar-gel diffusion tests were not reliable. In most of the examined cases clinical symptoms and histological results correlated well with the indirect haemagglutination test, the microprecipitation test with living larvae of Trichinella spiralis and evidence of specific antibodies (IgG, IgM, IgE) by indirect immunofluorescence and the ELISA technique. 25 patients were treated with thiabendazole (Minzolum), 19 of them successfully.