Capillariasis: chronic watery diarrhea--not only from microorganisms.

A 54-year-old male Thai patient from Prachin Buri Province presented with a history of chronic watery diarrhea for many years. He passed stool five to ten times per day with occasionally colicky pain, abdominal distension, nausea and vomiting. He had visited hospitals and private clinics and received treatment but with no improvement. He presented to the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, Bangkok, Thailand, where on physical examination, he had moderate dehydration, weakness, abdominal distension and a gurgling abdomen. The eggs, larvae and adult worms of Capillaria philippinensis were found on stool examination. The patient was admitted and treated with Mebendazole for 20 days, whereupon his symptoms resolved. Two months previously, he had ingested a raw small fresh-water fish dish called "Phra-Pla Siw/Soi". Small fresh-water fish near the patient's home were collected and examined for Capillaria philippinensis larva. The results were negative for parasitic organisms.

Prevalence of strongyloides in Northern Thailand and treatment with ivermectin vs albendazole.

The stools of 697 cases were examined by agar plate technique at Tambon Makam Luang, Sun Pa Tong district, Chiang Mai; there were Strongyloides stercoralis 15.9%,Opisthorchis viverrini 5.1%, intestinal fluke 0.1%. Treatment with ivermectin 78 cases and albendazole 33 cases of strongyloidiasis gave cure rates at 98.7% and 78.7%, respectively. Alkaline phosphatase in some patients were increased at mild level after treatment. Side effects in ivermectin group were anorexia, nausia, diarrhea, diffuse itching and drowsiness; and in albendazole group were nausia and diarrhea. The efficacy of single dose and mild side effects suggest ivermectin as drug of choice for strongyloidiasis treatment.

Efficacy of benzimidazole carbamate on an intestinal fluke co-infected with nematodes.

The efficacy of a single dose of benzimidazole, drugs commonly used for the treatment of Ascaris and hookworm, was evaluated against one of the tiny-sized intestinal flukes, Haplorchis sp in the endemic area where mixed infections of roundworms and flatworms existed. At day 7 after treatment, albendazole (400 mg) induced 42.5% cure rate, mebendazole (500 mg) a cure rate of 32.4%, on the other hand, praziquantel (40 mg/kg) gave 94.6% cure rate and the placebo at 15.9%. At the single dose, benzimidazole could not completely expelled the haplorchid; but could reduce one third to two fifth of the infection, similar to the drugs efficacy against Trichuris infection.

Improved antigens for IgG-ELISA diagnosis of strongyloidiasis.

Two preparations of antigens for the diagnosis of strongyloidiasis were prepared from an extract of the infective larvae of Strongyloides stercoralis: a crude antigen (CA) and a molecular weight cut-off antigen (MWCOA). Both antigens were analysed by indirect ELISA against the sera of strongyloidiasis (26 cases), other helminthiases (167) and normal controls (30). The larvae were obtained from fecal culture by a modified polyethylene tube technique after screening tests by triple simple smears per case. The larvae were extracted with distilled water and further sonicated to obtain a supernatant, the CA. A part of the CA was separated for an antigen containing molecules of lower than 30 kDa by an ultrafree-MC centrifugal filter tube (PLTK): this was designed as the MWCOA. The CA gave 96.15% sensitivity and 40.12% (67/167) specificity at a cut-off value of 0.980 (5SD); false positives were produced by 19 of 20 different helminthiases. The MWCOA produced 96.15% sensitivity at cut-off value of 0.71 (4SD); the specificity of the test was 78.44% (131/167), higher than that of CA. False positives also appeared with 15 other helminthic infections. This study suggests that MWCOA is more specific than CA. A purified MWCOA will be necessary in order to reduce cross-reactivity and provide the suitable diagnosis of strongyloidiasis.