Trichinosis: clinical report and histochemistry of muscle.

A 35-year-old woman contracted severe trichinosis which was atypical in that it lacked a gastrointestinal prodrome and periorbital edema, and in that eosinophilia developed only late in the course of the illness. The patient developed an incapacitating myositis as well as complications of encephalopathy, myocarditis, and retinal hemorrhages, resulting in severe debilitation of more than two and one-half months' duration. Muscle histochemistry illustrated previously unreported features.