ABSTRACT
A 17-month-old boy from Vancouver, Canada, presented with a 5-day history of progressive somnolence, ataxia, and torticollis. Additional investigations revealed eosinophilic encephalitis with deep white matter changes on MR imaging. On day 13, serology came back positive for Baylisascaris procyonis antibodies. While prophylaxis after ingestion of soil or materials potentially contaminated with raccoon feces can prevent baylisascariasis, timely treatment can sometimes alter a disastrous outcome. Populations of infected raccoons are propagating globally, but cases of Baylisascaris neural larva migrans have so far only been reported from North America.
Subject(s)
Ascaridida Infections/pathology , Central Nervous System Parasitic Infections/pathology , Larva Migrans/pathology , Raccoons/genetics , Adolescent , Animals , Ascaridida Infections/genetics , Ascaridoidea/genetics , Ascaridoidea/immunology , Central Nervous System Parasitic Infections/diagnosis , Encephalitis/genetics , Encephalitis/pathology , Humans , Larva Migrans/diagnosis , Larva Migrans/genetics , Male , Nematode Infections/genetics , North AmericaABSTRACT
Toxocarosis is still an important and actual problem in human medicine. It can manifest as visceral (VLM), ocular (OLM) or covert (CT) larva migrans syndroms. Complicated life cycle of Toxocara, lack of easy and practical methods of species differentiation of the adult nematode and embarrassing in recognition of the infection in definitive hosts create difficulties in fighting with the infection. Although studies on human toxocarosis have been continued for over 50 years there is no conclusive answer, which of species--T. canis or T. cati constitutes a greater risk of transmission of the nematode to man. Neither blood serological examinations nor microscopic observations of the morphological features of the nematode give the satisfied answer on the question. Since the 90-ths molecular methods were developed for species identification and became useful tools being widely applied in parasitological diagnosis. This paper cover the survey of methods of DNA analyses used for identification of Toxocara species. The review may be helpful for researchers focused on Toxocara and toxocarosis as well as on detection of new species. The following techniques are described: PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction), RFLP (Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism), RAPD (Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA) and SSCP (Single Strand Conformation Polymorphism).
Subject(s)
Molecular Biology/methods , Toxocara canis/classification , Toxocara canis/genetics , Toxocariasis/classification , Toxocariasis/diagnosis , Animals , Cats , Dogs , Humans , Larva Migrans/classification , Larva Migrans/diagnosis , Larva Migrans/genetics , Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length , Polymorphism, Single-Stranded Conformational , Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA Technique , Species Specificity , Toxocariasis/geneticsABSTRACT
A husband and wife contracted larva migrans while vacationing on the Gulf of Mexico. Subsequently, migratory pulmonary infiltrates and peripheral eosinophilia (Loeffler's syndrome) developed in both patients. Their cutaneous lesions were treated with topical thiabendazole and resolved within two weeks. The pulmonary complication was treated symptomatically and resolved during the next eight weeks.
