ABSTRACT
A 46-year-old human immunodeficiency virus-infected Swiss citizen living in Tanzania presented with respiratory, abdominal, and urogenital complaints. Microsporidial spores were isolated from urine and a sinunasal aspirate and were propagated in MRC-5 cell cultures. Western blot analysis and riboprinting identified the sinunasal isolate as Encephalitozoon hellem. Electron microscopic investigation of the urine isolate revealed spores with diplokaryotic nuclei and five to six isofilar coils of the polar tube and sporonts with two or three diplokarya. All stages were enveloped by two membranes, corresponding to a cisterna of host endoplasmic reticulum studded with ribosomes. These characteristics have been described for the genus Vittaforma. Western blot analysis of this isolate revealed a banding pattern identical to that of the Vittaforma corneae reference isolate. Part of the small subunit rRNA gene was amplified, sequenced (239 base pairs), and found to be identical to that of V. corneae. This is the second isolation of V. corneae and the first description of urinary tract infection due to V. corneae in a patient with AIDS.
Subject(s)
AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections/parasitology , Encephalitozoonosis/complications , Microsporida , Animals , Blotting, Western , Encephalitozoon/isolation & purification , Humans , Male , Mice , Mice, Nude/parasitology , Microsporida/isolation & purification , Microsporida/ultrastructure , Middle Aged , Protozoan Infections/parasitologyABSTRACT
We report the case of a 17-year-old student from Cameroon who presented an atypical, mono-symptomatic form of Loa loa infection, characterized only by rare subcutaneous movements of adult worms.
Subject(s)
Loa/isolation & purification , Loiasis/parasitology , Skin Diseases/parasitology , Adolescent , Animals , Diagnosis, Differential , Diethylcarbamazine/therapeutic use , Female , Filaricides/therapeutic use , Humans , Loa/drug effects , Loiasis/drug therapy , Loiasis/pathology , Microfilariae/drug effects , Microfilariae/isolation & purification , Skin Diseases/drug therapy , Skin Diseases/pathologyABSTRACT
The majority of intestinal parasites isolated in Switzerland is imported by refugees and travellers. Nematodes are more frequently isolated in the first group, whereas Giardia duodenalis and Strongyloides stercoralis predominate in the second. Symptoms are usually mild, but occasionally diarrhea, abdominal pain and weight loss may be encountered. Hypereosinophilia occurs frequently with some parasites. Four cases chosen from the outpatient department of a Swiss medical polyclinic are presented and serve as a basis for discussing persistent and chronic diarrhea, acute traveller's diarrhea, and hypereosinophilia. Differential diagnosis according to type and duration of symptoms, laboratory findings and treatment of the most frequently encountered parasites are reviewed.
Subject(s)
Intestinal Diseases, Parasitic/parasitology , Adult , Animals , Antiparasitic Agents/therapeutic use , Blastocystis hominis/isolation & purification , Cryptosporidium/isolation & purification , Emigration and Immigration , Female , Giardia lamblia/isolation & purification , Humans , Intestinal Diseases, Parasitic/drug therapy , Male , Risk Factors , Strongyloides/isolation & purification , Travel , Trichuris/isolation & purificationABSTRACT
It was made possible to study the mode of nuclear division during all the stage of mitotic division of the free-living amoebae belonging to the families Schizopyrenidae and Hartmannellidae, when the massive number of them were fixed and stained. While the four phases of nuclear division vary in different genera, in the amoebae belonging to the same genus the mitotic division was similar. In the family Schizopyrenidae, the nucleus contains a central Feulgen-negative nucleolus which during mitosis form "polar masses". In the family Hartmannellidae, the resting nucleus has either a single Feulgen-negative nucleolus or several nucleoli. During mitosis the nucleolus or nucleoli disappear and a spindle with chromosomes arranged as an equatorial plate develops. The mitotic apparatus is an essential criterion in the differentiation of the genera Hartmannella and Naegleria.
