Case: A 48 year-old man with no past medical history was sent to our emergency department (ED); from a primary care clinic for hypertensive urgency of 200/130. The man reported an intermittent non-productive cough of approximately one year's duration and worsening dyspnea on exertion and orthopnea over the last month with lower extremity swelling. Of note, he emigrated from Honduras twenty years ago. Blood pressure normalized with administration of Lasix in the ED. Physical exam revealed rales in lung bases bilaterally, jugular venous distension, lower extremity pitting edema with serpiginous patches of erythema and excoriation, and a cardiac gallop. Labs showed peripheral eosinophilia, thrombocytopenia, elevated creatinine, hyperbilirubinemia, hyperglycemia, and mild transaminitis. Transthoracic echocardiogram revealed a dilated left ventricle with global hypokinesis and severely depressed systolic function with an ejection fraction less than 15 percent . The patient was diuresed, and subsequent left and right heart catheterizations were normal. CT chest showed a small nodule in the right upper lobe. Tests for Coccidiosis, Trypanosoma cruzi, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis were negative; however the acid fast bacilli culture grew Mycobacterium fortuitum. A Strongyloides stercoralis antibody test was positive, and the patient was treated with two doses of oral ivermectin with one dose of intravenous ceftriaxone, and discharged. Two months later, his eosinophilia resolved, but he remained symptomatic with productive cough and weight loss, and was started on an outpatient course of oral ciprofloxacin and trimethoprim-sulfamethozole for M. fortuitum.
Disscusion: Strongyloides-infected patients may carry the parasite for years without prominent symptoms. Endemic throughout South America, Strongyloides persists in its hosts through a lifecycle of autoinfection, which, over time, increases parasite burden and can lead to a hyperinfection syndrome whereby filiariform larvae penetrate organ tissue, most commonly: heart, central nervous system, lungs and liver. We suspect chronic eosinophilia and disseminated filiaria to be the etiology of the non-ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy in this patient. Standard treatment of strongyloidiasis is ivermectin, however, mortality owing to transient bacteremia in the setting of hyperinfection syndrome is high. Therefore, bacteremia prophylaxis with gram negative rod coverage should be considered before antiparasitic agent initiation.