[Progress of research on clinical manifestations and diagnosis of human pentastomiasis]

Human pentastomiasis is an unusual parasitic zoonosis caused by wormlike pentastomids. Of the many pentastome species, 10 are known to infect humans in the world, and among them, Armillifer armillatus and Linguatula serrata are the main pathogenic species which can account for most human infections. According to the location in human body and clinical symptoms of the main pathogenic species, human pentastomiasis can be divided into two parasitic types clinically, the visceral type and nasopharyngeal type. The methods for diagnosing pentastomiasis is based on the morphology, histopathological and imageology examinations combined with clinical manifestations and epidemiology, but the relational serological and molecular tests are rarely reported. In this article, we aim to provide a basic review of human pentastomiasis on the pathogen, clinical manifestations, endemic areas and primary diagnostic methods.