Case of the month. A case report of human pulmonary dirofilariasis in Arkansas.

Our patient, a resident of Arkansas, presented with a solitary pulmonary nodule for lung resection to rule out primary lung cancer. However, pathologic examination showed the lung nodule to be a granuloma secondary to dirofilariasis. Human pulmonary dirofilariasis is a rare zoonotic disease caused by Dirofilariasis immitis (dog heartworm) that is usually transmitted from dogs to human by mosquito bite. To our knowledge, human pulmonary dirofilariasis has previously not been reported in Arkansas. In addition, awareness of this entity in the appropriate clinical and epidemiologic setting is important in the differential diagnosis of solitary pulmonary nodules.