Type:
Educational Exhibit
Keywords:
Not applicable, Tropical diseases, Parasites, Education, Ultrasound, MR, CT, Musculoskeletal spine, Liver, Biliary Tract / Gallbladder, Abdominal Viscera
Authors:
M.-C. Craciunoiu1, S. M. Dudea2, M. Socaciu1; 1Cluj-Napoca/RO, 2Cluj-Napoca /RO
DOI:
10.26044/ecr2020/C-14852
Background
A parasite is an organism that lives in another organism at the host’s expense, causing harm and disease in the host itself. A large group of parasites have domestic animals as main host.
Zoonoses represent a group of disease that can be transmitted between animals and humans in natural conditions. In developed countries this kind of diseases are rare, but travelling to endemic areas or immigration has increased the number of patients in Western countries. Immunocompromised patients have a higher risk of developing these diseases and their complications. Many of the parasites have a complex life cycle, some can cause a systemic disease, while others are limited to particular organs.
Below you will find a list with the most common human parasitic diseases encountered in our daily practice.
Table 1: Classification of parasites, transmission, organ involvement and imaging findings
References: Carnero PR et al. (2017) Unexpected Hosts: Imaging Parasitic Diseases. Insights Imaging 8(1):101-125.