Twinkle Artifact Observed During POCUS of a Human Myiasis Caused by the Dermatobia hominis Botfly

David Jerome; Matthew Stacey; Joseph Newbigging

doi:10.24908/pocus.v8i2.16712

Twinkle Artifact Observed During POCUS of a Human Myiasis Caused by the Dermatobia hominis Botfly

POCUS J. 2023 Nov 27;8(2):142-145. doi: 10.24908/pocus.v8i2.16712. eCollection 2023.

Authors

David Jerome^{1

2}, Matthew Stacey², Joseph Newbigging²

Affiliations

¹ Northern Ontario School of Medicine University Thunder Bay, ON Canada.
² Department of Medicine, Queen's University Kingston, ON Canada.

Abstract

An 81-year-old man presented to urgent care for assessment of an area of erythema and tenderness on his right thigh after recent travel to Belize. Point of care ultrasound (POCUS) revealed a hyperechoic structure with acoustic shadowing in the subcutaneous tissue. Colour Doppler assessment of the structure produced a twinkle artifact. The structure was removed and pathology identified the object as a Dermatobia hominis larva (human botfly). The use of POCUS helped identify and localize the subcutaneous foreign body. The use of colour Doppler produced the twinkle artifact, which has not been previously reported as a finding produced during ultrasonographic assessment of botfly larvae.

Keywords: Emergency Medicine; Point of Care Ultrasound(POCUS); infectious disease; travel medicine; wilderness medicine.

Publication types

Case Reports