Opportunistic intestinal parasites among children with chronic liver disease

Two hundred children were included in this study; 80 patients showing clinical and/or biochemical evidence of chronic liver disease, 80 children immunocompromised due to causes other than chronic liver disease and 40 healthy controls. All were subjected to detailed history, thorough clinical examination, investigated by liver function tests and stool examination by special techniques for opportunistic intestinal parasites. Autoimmune chronic hepatitis represented 12.5% of cases with chronic liver disease, 30% of hepatic schistosomiasis, 25% of congenital cholestasis, 20% of chronic viral hepatitis and 12.5% of metabolic liver diseases. The incidence of opportunistic intestinal parasites with chronic liver disease [92.5%] was nearly similar to the immunocompromised patients [90%] and significantly higher than the controls [30%]. Mixed infection was not detected in the controls, while 57.5% of patients with chronic liver disease and 35% of the immunocompromised ones were infected by two parasites and 12.5% of each group was infected by more parasites

Pathological changes in mice vaccinated with swap, challenged and treated with praziquantel

Not only SWAP vaccinated mice and challenged with Schistosoma mansoni cercaria [100 +/- 20 / mouse] showed a significantly decrease in worm burden of perfused vaccinated mice compared with control non vaccinated infected mice, but also minimized the size and number of granuloma in different tissues [intestine, spleen and liver] compared with infected control. Praziquantel therapy showed a significant decrease in egg granuloma size and number in the intestine but the liver showed less significant decrease in egg granuloma size and number. This observation may aggravate hepatic fibrosis, especially if some worms are still viable and shift to the liver due to partial drug resistance and/or incomplete therapy. These data may guide and recommend follow up and repeat therapeutic dose to surely kill and prevent worms from shift to the liver. There is a synergism between drug therapy and vaccination, which showed marked decrease in egg granuloma size and number in the liver, while the intestine was nearly cured. Finally SWAP vaccinated mice showed a partial protection due to acquired immunity but the mice are still susceptible to infection with Schistosoma

Role of toxocariasis in some allergic skin diseases

Allergic skin diseases are cutaneous reaction attributed to multiple potential causes. One of these causes is toxocaral infection. In order to explore its role we examined two groups of children suffering from atopic dermatitis [AD] [26 children aging up to 15 years Group I] and chronic idiopathic urticaria [CIU] 24 children of the same age [Group II]. In addition to 30 apparently healthy children free from any skin disease, they were considered as control group [Group III]. Antitoxocaral IgG antibodies detected by ELISA were found among 15%. 21% and 10% of the three groups respectively with a statistical significant difference in the chronic idiopathic urticarial group [CIU] and the level of antitoxocaral IgG was significantly higher among the two groups versus the control one [P<0.05]. Specific antitoxocaral IgE detected by immunosorbent agglutination assay [ISAGA] revealed that, positivities to specific IgE were 7.7% and 12.5% in the atopic dermatitis and chronic idiopathic urticarial groups respectively with a high statistical significant difference versus the control group [P<0.001]. Estimation of eosinophils among the different groups revealed that, eosinophilia was found among the examined groups with a highly staistical significant difference than the control [P<0.001] and hypereosinophilia was present in patients showed positivity for IgE specific for toxocaral infection. It could be concluded that, toxocaral infection most probably has a role in some idiopathic skin allergic diseases as atopic dermatitis and chronic idiopathic urticaria