Assessment of transforming growth factor -beta [TGF-beta] and auto antibodies in human fascioliasis

ABSTRACT

Seventy individuals were included in this study, sixty of them suffering from fascioliasis thirty with acute and the other thirty with chronic fascioliasis. Ten individuals were taken as a control group. All patients and controls were subjected to clinical, stool, urine and blood examination, abdominal ultrasonography and estimation of TGF-beta and non-organ specific autoantibodies in their serum. The presenting symptoms were abdominal pain [93.3% and 30%], fever [100% and 10%], urticaria [40% and 16.7%] and diarrhoea [53.3% and 3.3%] in acute and chronic stages of fascioliasis respectively. Among the acute and chronic cases of fascioliasis, the following signs wcre presented hepatomegaly [100% and 66.7%], splenomegaly [63.3% and 16.7%], pallor [80% and 43.3%], fever [100% and 10%] and jaundice [0% and 16.7%]. Abdominal ultrasonography revealed hepatomegaly and splenomegaly in patients with acute fascioliasis while in chronic patients there were common bile duct dilatation, intrahepatic biliary radical dilatation and echogenic shadows in biliary system in 16.7%, 16.7% and 23.3% respectively. During the acute stage a significant increase was observed in TGF-beta level comparing to the chronic and normal control groups. The present study also found that the percent positivity of auto-antibodies increased with the chronicity of the disease; anti-nuclear antibodies [0% and 60%], anti-deoxyribonucleic acid [0% and 20%], anti-smooth muscles [3.3% and 70%] and anti-mitochondrial [6.6% and 26.6%] in acute and chronic stages respectively. It can be concluded that TGF-beta elevation and absence of antinuclear and anti deoxyribonucleic acid antibodies in patients with acute infection can be used as diagnostic markers and monitor for early infection