Pleural paragonimiasis in a Southeast Asia refugee

We report a Laotian patient with pleural paragonimiasis who did not have the usual diagnostic triad for this parasitic disease. He did not have chronic hemoptysis (considered by many to be an "invariable" finding), there were no pulmonary infiltrations, and stool and sputum examinations did not yield Paragonimus ova. The diagnosis was made on the basis of ova found in the pleural fluid. Paragonimiasis pleural effusion did not resolve with bithionol, the drug of choice for pulmonary paragonimiasis, and, as a result, chest tube drainage was required. The difference between pleural paragonimiasis and pulmonary paragonimiasis is that the classic clinical presentation of the latter (hemoptysis, ova in sputum and stools, lung infiltration, etc.) requires an intrapulmonary location on the parasite. A search for ova in the pleural fluid may be the only diagnostic tool for patients suspected of pleural paragonimiasis. With the influx of Southeast Asia refugees, this case report may be of relevance to U.S. physicians involved in the care of patients in whom not all chronic pleuropulmonary diseases are tuberculous.