Spirometra mansoni sparganosis identified by metagenomic next-generation sequencing: a case report

A 30-year-old male patient had a cyst on the left hip and progressive enlargement for more than 2 months. Combined blood tests, magnetic resonance imaging, and pathology findings, cysticercosis infec-tion was suspected. However, the treatment for cysticercosis was ineffective. We conducted a metage-nomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) analysis on the formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded specimen of the patient's surgically excised tissue, and the results suggested Spirometra mansoni, mNGS was fur-ther confirmed by polymerase chain reaction and phylogenetic analysis of cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (cox1) gene. Based on these results, we found that mNGS provided a better method of diagnosing par-asitic infections.(c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Society for Infectious Diseases. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ )

Automated summary

A 30-year-old male patient presented with a cyst on the left hip that had been progressively enlarging for over 2 months. Initial investigations pointed towards a cysticercosis infection, but treatment was ineffective. Subsequent metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) analysis of surgically excised tissue revealed a Spirometra mansoni infection, which was further confirmed by polymerase chain reaction and phylogenetic analysis. This study highlights the superior diagnostic capability of mNGS in identifying parasitic infections.