Human fascioliasis in Assiut suburb, Upper Egypt

ABSTRACT

During this study, a case of human fascioliasis was recorded for the first time from Upper Egypt. Two mature flukes were released from the bile duct of 29-year old female patient. The encountered worms were washed, flattened, fixed, carmine stained, mounted and photographed for morphological studies. Clinically, the patient was presented with a history of abdominal pain and tenderness in the right hypochondrium and epigastrium five months ago. The pain was frequently repeated and was accompanied by vomiting and relieved by antispasmodics. Radiologically, there was intrahepatic biliary dilation and the gall bladder was of irregular wall, enlarged and contained muddy bile. Laboratory investigations revealed anemia, bilirubinemia and eosinophilia. The patient was operated on with the possible diagnosis of choledocholithiasis and parasites were incidentally discovered at the operation. Examination of bile and stool were negative for Fasciola eggs which means that the eggs were excreted at irregular intervals from the adult fluke; for this reason, diagnosis of human fascioliasis based on the detection of the parasite eggs in the stool is often unreliable