An emergency room doctor is sharing the alarming scans of a patient who was hospitalized after eating undercooked pork.
On August 25, Dr. Sam Ghali — an emergency room physician from the University of Florida Health Jacksonville — posted an image on X of “one of the craziest CT scans I’ve ever seen.” The CT scan showed a patient’s legs filled with a parasitic infection in the muscles.
The doctor said he uses his platform to teach his followers about medical emergencies, asking them to guess the diagnosis.
Ghali later revealed that the patient was diagnosed with the parasitic infection called cysticercosis.
Cysticercosis is a tapeworm infection that affects the brain, muscle, and other tissues. It is caused by ingesting larval cysts of the pork tapeworm (Taenia solium).
“Humans become infected with T. solium by ingesting cysts that can be found in undercooked pork,” Ghali explained. The larvae “penetrate the intestinal wall and invade into the bloodstream and from there can spread to literally anywhere in the entire body.”
Cysticercosis is often spread by contact with tapeworm-infected human feces, contaminated food, water and dirty hands. It can cause lumps under the skin and if it spreads to the brain or spinal cord, an infected person may experience headaches and seizures.
Ghali said that the infection appears on CT scans as white specks commonly referred to as “rice grain calcifications.” He added that after 5-12 weeks, the ingested cysts can even evolve into mature adult tapeworms.
“The prognosis for cysticercosis is generally good but unfortunately some cases are fatal. It’s estimated that around 50 million people worldwide are infected each year resulting in ~50,000 deaths,” Ghali said. “Treatment options include anti-parasitic therapy, steroids, anti-epileptics (neurocysticercosis), and surgical removal.”
“So the moral of the story here is do your best to keep clean, always wash your hands, and never, ever eat raw or undercooked pork,” he added.
