Effect of chemotherapy on experimental pulmonary schistosomiasis.

Mice with portal hypertension caused by portal vein ligation reproduced the model of severe pulmonary schistosomiasis when infected for 10 weeks with 30 cercariae of Schistosoma mansoni. Curative treatment promoted reversion, without fibrosis, of the periovular granulomatous lesions formed in the alveolar tissue. However, the arterial and arteriolar lesions were defectively repaired, with segmental vascular fibrosis, narrowing, and angiomatoid changes remaining for up to 120 days after treatment. There was also evidence that eggs are destroyed more rapidly and more completely in the lungs than in the liver.