Unexpected Schistosomiasis Diagnosed After Appendectomy in a Migrant Child

28 November 2025 : Case report Switzerland

Challenging differential diagnosis, Rare coexistence of disease or pathology

Isshak Mrabet-Deraoui

^{ABCDEF 1*}, Lorenzo Monforte

^{ABDEF 2}, Slobodan Prica

^{ABDFG 2}, Yvonne Schmiedel

^{ABCDEFG 3}

DOI: 10.12659/AJCR.950906

Am J Case Rep 2025; 26:e950906

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Table 2 Overview of Schistosomiasis diagnostics and limitations.

Tool	Application	Sensitivity/specificity	Limitations
Microscopy	Egg detection in stool or urine	High in areas with high infection intensity	Limited by low egg burden; prevalence-intensity dissociation due to mass drug administration or test-and-treat strategies
POC-CCA	Urine antigen detection	High for	Cannot detect other species; reduced specificity with a high rate of false positives []; poor inter-batch reproducibility¹⁰
Serology	Antibody detection	Good for identifying past exposure	Cannot distinguish active from past infection
PCR	DNA or RNA detection in serum	Highly sensitive and specific	Costly; requires laboratory validation
Biopsy	Histopathologic evaluation	Gold standard for tissue diagnosis	Invasive; carries procedural risk
PCR – polymerase chain reaction; POC-CCA – point-of-care circulating cathodic antigen.

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