The following is a summary of “Cardiac hydatid disease; a systematic review,” published in the September 2023 issue of Infectious Disease by Banisefid et al.
Human cystic echinococcosis (CE) is a parasitic infection brought by the larval stage of tapeworms of the genus Echinococcus, which can affect the heart in rare cases. Researchers performed a retrospective study to summarize the evidence on the features of cardiac CE.
They included a case series of patients with cardiac CE in the study, excluding non-English papers, case reports, reviews, letters, commentaries, and conference abstracts. A systematic search was supervised in the PubMed and EMBASE databases and assessed the risk of bias in the included studies using the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Critical Appraisal Checklist.
The results showed 3,985 search results with 37 studies. Based on the available evidence, cardiac involvement in CE is infrequent but significant, manifesting with non-specific signs and symptoms. The most usual symptoms include dyspnea, chest pain, and palpitations, while the most frequent Electrocardiogram (ECG) finding is a normal sinus rhythm. Timely diagnosis and appropriate management are associated with low mortality in cases of this disease.
Investigators concluded that the primary sources of bias were inclusion, statistical analysis, and demographics. The review was limited to non-English papers.
Source: bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12879-023-08576-3
