For those individuals who underwent the 1998 multiphasic health screening conducted by the Tokyo Health Service Association, a cellophane thick smear test was used to check for fecal Metagonimus yokogawai ova and test positivities, fresh water fish consumed, symptoms, occult blood, changes in clinical test results, and therapeutic modalities were evaluated.
For the 2, 235 individuals, the positivity was 8.4%, a 2.3 times increase over 3.6% for 1993. The ovum count per microscopic field ranged from 1 to 3 in 12.3% (maximum, 110) .
Among those examined, 21.2% were overseas travelers, pointing to domestic sources for the infection. The fresh water fish most frequently consumed by the patients was sweetfish (70.3%) and whitebait (43.8%) .
In 50 each of those with positive and negative reactions, the symptoms seen (though infrequently) were : constipation (4 cases), diarrhea (3), anorexia and low grade fever (1 each) for the former; and diarrhea (6) and upper abdominal pain (1) for the latter.
The t-test was used forthe comparison, the significance level being set atp<0.05. The A/G ratio was high in the positive group. The neutral lipid level and eosinophil ratio were higher and the platelet count, lower in the positive group (with no significance) . The two groups showed little difference in GPT, γGTP, LDH, UA, HbAlc, Amy, Cr, CRP, TP, Alb, RBC, WBC, and Hb.
The occult blood was positive in 4 (8.0%) from the aforementioned 50 who reacted positively and 1 (2.0%) from the other 50. Positive reactions to occult blood were rare in both groups.
The 109 patients were treated with Biltricide (Praziquantel, 20 mg/kg, once/day), which resulted in a 97.2% negative response at a fecal examination 7 days later.