Common Name(s):
Muscle Coccidiosis
Alternative Names & Classifications:
Sarcocystis Infection (CLINICAL), Sarcocystosis (CLINICAL)
Description
Human infection takes two distinct forms: intestinal, caused by eating undercooked meat containing tissue cysts, or muscular, caused by inadvertently ingesting sporocysts from the environment. In the muscular form, the parasite rapidly replicates in the vascular endothelium before ultimately encysting within skeletal and cardiac muscle fibers. It is generally self-limiting in the intestinal form but can cause intense, prolonged myositis in the muscular form.