Radiographic and HRCT imaging findings of chronic pulmonary schistosomiasis: review of 10 consecutive cases

OBJECTIVE: To describe the chest radiography (CR) and the high resolution CT (HRCT) imaging findings of chronic pulmonary schistosomiasis (CPS) METHODS AND MATERIALS: This retrospective study included 10 patients suffering from CPS, studied between September 2013 and October 2016 by using CR and HRCT. Images were reviewed by two experienced radiologists in consensus, blinded to clinical data. A p value < 0.05 was considered significant RESULTS: All the patients enrolled showed some abnormalities at HRCT, including lung consolidations, solid nodules, nodules with peri-nodular halo, ground-glass opacities, enlarged hilar lymph-nodes. Only seven patients showed findings at CR ( p = 0.001). At CT, none of the patients had significant pleural, vascular (pulmonary arteries) or cardiac findings. Post-therapy studies (mean interval 35 days) demonstrated the absence of residual disease in all patients. CONCLUSION: The imaging findings of CPS varied widely in our study population. HRCT may show signs which are occult on plain radiograph. All lesions disappeared after appropriate therapy at imaging follow-up studie.