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ACUTE PANCREATITIS CAUSED BY TAPEWORM IN THE BILIARY TRACT

Taeniasis is a helminthic infection endemic in southeast Asia, including Taiwan. Recent studies suggest that Asian Taenia is a new subspecies of Taenia saginata and has been renamed as Taenia saginata asiatica. It is usually asymptomatic or associated with only mild gastrointestinal symptoms. We report the case of a 52-year-old woman with acute epigastric pain and vomiting. Her levels of amylase and lipase were significantly elevated on admission. Gastrointestinal endoscopy showed proglottids of a tapeworm in the papilla of the duodenum. The epigastric pain subsided and the amylase and lipase levels decreased after removal of the tapeworm by endoscopy and anthelminthic treatment. Although parasites are not an uncommon cause of pancreatitis, especially in disease-endemic areas, it is rare for Taenia to cause acute pancreatitis.

Received September 9, 2004. Accepted for publication February 10, 2005.

Acknowledgment: We thank Shih-Yi Peng for his comments and assistance in preparing this manuscript.

^* Address correspondence to Dr. Yu-Min Liu, Department of Internal Medicine, Mackay Memorial Hospital, 92, Section 2, Chungshan North Road, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China. E-mail: taican{at}yahoo.com

Authors’ addresses: Yu-Min Liu, Wen-Hsiung Chang, and Shee-Chan Lin, Department of Internal Medicine, Mackay Memorial Hospital, 92, Section 2, Chungshan North Road, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China, E-mail: taican{at}yahoo.com. Ming-Jong Bair, Department of Internal Medicine, Mackay Memorial Taitung Branch Hospital, 1, Lane 303, Changsha Street, Taitung, Taiwan, Republic of China. Yu-Jan Chan, Department of Pathology, Mackay Memorial Hospital, 92, Section 2, Chungshan North Road, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China.

Reprint requests: Ming-Jong Bair, Department of Internal Medicine, Mackay Memorial Taitung Branch Hospital, 1, Lane 303, Changsha Street, Taitung, Taiwan, Republic of China, Telephone: 886-89-310-150, Fax: 886-89-321-240, E-mail: a5963{at}ttms.mmh.org.tw.