ABSTRACT
Currently, chronic diarrhoea syndrome in children is a very common pathology whose aetiology is sometimes difficult to identify. Methodologies for the diagnosis of infections have diversified, and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) is a very useful tool. The aim of this study was to identify volatile biomarkers of the presence of Giardia duodenalis in the faeces of patients with chronic diarrhoea (with and without giardiasis) using static headspace extraction followed by GC/MS. The analysis of the volatiles extracted from the headspace had enough sensitivity to detect differences in the volatile profiles in the faeces of the patients with and without Giardia duodenalis infection and discriminate between them. Dimethyl disulphide and trisulphide were found in the faeces of patients without giardiasis but not in the faeces of patients with G. duodenalis. Finally, three possible biomarkers, acetic acid, 1,4-dimethoxy-2,3-butanediol and 1,3-dimethoxy-2-propanol, were proposed to identify patients with giardiasis; these compounds were not present in the patients without the parasite. Multivariate analysis revealed that principal component 1 separated the stool samples according to the presence of infection by G. duodenalis despite the inter-individual variability in biological specimens such as faeces.
Subject(s)
Diarrhea/parasitology , Giardia lamblia , Giardiasis/diagnosis , Animals , Biomarkers/analysis , Child , Child, Preschool , Feces/parasitology , Female , Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry , Giardiasis/parasitology , Humans , Male , Multivariate AnalysisABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Intestinal parasitism represents a public health problem that should be periodically assessed in each region. In the present paper, a study about prevalence of intestinal parasites, has been carried out in children from the natural region of the Guadalquivir Valley. METHODS: During the period 1994-1996, 1,917 children without symptoms, aging between 6 and 10, were studied by means of coprological analysis and Graham method, all of them living in 20 villages in the Guadalquivir valley. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of intestinal parasitism have been of 27.12%. The reported parasites and their prevalence are as follows: Enterobius vermicularis (20.44%), Giardia lamblia (5.05%), Entamoeba coli (2.45%), Endolimax nana (1.61%), Entamoeba histolytica (0.31%), Entamoeba hartmanni (0.05%), Iodamoeba bütschlii (0.05%). CONCLUSIONS: The overall prevalence of intestinal parasites is similar to that found in other spanish region, if only a little bit more favourable probably due to the long lasting drought and the improvements in health resources, no geohelminths have been detected unlike other protozoan infections, giardiasis maintains a relatively high prevalence.
