[Visceral and ocular Larva migrans: epidemiologic study, clinical and immunologic findings on 20 cases, adult and child].

The authors report a case-study of 20 subjects affected by visceral Larva migrans (VLM) and ocular Larva migrans (OLM). Of the 20 patients, 11 were male, and 9 female (mean age: 45 years); 7 were children, from 1 to 8 years old. Seventeen patients presented clinical and bio-humoral features which could be correlated with VLM syndrome; alongside cases with clearly suggestive symptomatology, in some patients the infection by Toxocara sp. was found to show few or minor symptoms, or even to be asymptomatic and occasionally it was suspected because of a marked peripheral eosinophilia. In 3 cases the infection was exclusively ocular. So far as immunology is concerned, serological tests confirmed in all 20 cases the clinico-epidemiological and/or bio-humoral suspicion; in particular the ELISA IgG test showed high titres in 16 cases, while the RAST showed significant levels of specific IgE in 17 cases. From the therapeutic point of view, the subjects treated were exclusively those presenting a manifest clinical picture: in 5 patients the first choice drug was thiabendazole, with clinical cure in only 2 cases; diethylcarbamazine resolved the clinico-parasitological picture in 1 case; 1 patient is still under treatment with albendazole.