Polymyositis and polyneuritis in experimental Angiostrongylus cantonensis infection of rabbits

Abstract

The effects of primary and secondary infections and anthelmintic therapy in angiostrongyliasis cantonensis were studied in rabbits. An increase in the number of infective larvae resulted in a more severe clinical course, but hardly changed the incubation period. Larvae fed to previously infected rabbits failed to reach the central nervous system; they died and were resorbed in the musculature, giving rise to polymyositis. Smaller inflammatory foci developed in the muscles if the larvae of a single infective dose were killed with Levamisole shortly after the infection. The finding of lesions in the peripheral nerves gives additional support to the hypothesis of intraneural larval migration from the muscles into the spinal cord and brain. It is suggested that signs of myositis could help to differentiate between the first attack and recurrence of the disease in human cases of eosinophilic meningitis.