[THE FIRST CASE OF OCULAR THELAZIASIS IN CROATIA].

The first case of ocular thelaziasis in a human male patient in Croatia is presented. Thelaziasis is a zoonosis caused by nematodes of the genus Thelazia, parasites of the conjunctival bags or tear ducts of mammals and birds. Two types of the genus Thelazia (T.) have been described as causes of infection in humans, T. callipaeda and T. californiensis. To date, less than 300 thelaziasis cases in humans have been reported. This zoonosis is very rare in humans in European countries, with a high incidence in Asian countries, especially in China, Thailand and Japan. Because of the high prevalence of the parasites in the Far East, T. callipaeda is called 'Oriental eye worm'. The first case of thelaziasis in Europe was described in 2008 in Italy and France, where cases in animals had already been reported. Seasonal occurrence of thelaziasis in Europe depends on the presence of the vector, fruit flies of Drosophilidae family, Phortica variegate as the most common type. Adult worm is milky white, females grow to 20 mm and males up to 12 mm. Dogs and cats are the most common sources of infection for humans, which occurs as unilateral ocular infection. The clinical picture of infection is similar to bacterial and allergic conjunctivitis with tearing and foreign body sensation. After removal of worms, clinical signs quickly disappear and there is no need for anthelmintic treatment. In the treatment of secondary infections, local antibiotics and corticosteroids can be applied. The 82-year-old male patient presented to outpatient ophthalmology clinic for occasional sensation of pain, itching, redness and tearing in his left eye during the last few days. His left eye was blind due to previous retinal detachment and had severe conjunctival and ciliary infection with large corneal abscess. Worm-like movement in the lateral canthus was observed. After topical anesthesia, seven worms were removed. Upon surgical extirpation of the parasite, the diagnosis of thelaziasis was verified by microbiological identification. Only two cases of Thelazia in dogs were reported in Croatia, in December 2013 and January 2014. It is important to bear in mind this cause of eye infections, especially when caused by larval stages that are difficult to identify. Untimely diagnosis and inadequate treatment lead to extended illness and complications. The appearance of this parasite in Croatian patients suggests the need for inclusion of the pathogen in the differential diagnosis of bacterial or allergic conjunctivitis.

Ikaros family transcription factors expression in rat thymus: detection of impaired development.

The expression of Ikaros family transcription factors and consequently their signalling pathway is limiting for hematopoietic and lymphocyte development in mice and human. Due to their importance, these transcription factors are highly homologous between species. As an initial approach to examining the possible involvement of Ikaros transcription factors in pathogenesis of rat lymphoid development, we analyzed the expression of all known Ikaros family members, Ikaros, Aiolos, Helios, Eos and Pegasus in the rat thymus. We established a semi-quantitative RT-PCR to detect mRNA of each transcription factor. For the first time we give evidence of the expression of Ikaros family transcription factors in the rat thymus. Further, we evaluated whether their mRNA expression was succumbed to changes when the rats were exposed to ethanol, as a known debilitating agent during development. Therefore we analyzed the thymus of adult rats whose mothers were forced to drink ethanol during gestation, to detect possible changes in thymus mRNA expression levels of Ikaros, Aiolos, Helios, Eos and Pegasus. We found that rats prenatally exposed to ethanol show a slightly higher expression of Ikaros family transcription factors in the adult thymus when compared to control rats, but these differences were not statistically significant. We further studied the distribution of the major lymphocyte subpopulations in the rat thymus according to CD3, CD4 and CD8 expression by four color flow cytometry. We found a higher incidence of CD3 positive cells in the double positive, CD4+CD8+ thymic subpopulation of rats prenatally exposed to ethanol when compared to non-exposed animals. Our findings indicate that ethanol exposure of pregnant rats might influence the development of CD3 positive cells in the thymus of the offspring but this result should be further tackled at the level of transcription factor expression.

Streptococcus suis infection as a cause of severe illness: 2 cases from Croatia.

Streptococcus suis is a zoonotic agent that can be spread to humans, e.g. butchers, abattoir workers and farmers, by contact with pigs. Human infection is most frequently manifested as purulent meningitis, in combination with deafness and ataxia, but there have been rare reports of septic shock leading to multiorgan failure and death. We report 2 patients with S. suis type 1 infection. One patient suffered an abrupt and severe illness, with septic shock leading to multiorgan failure and death, whereas the other presented with purulent meningitis and deafness. Both patients were immunocompromised. They were most likely infected as a result of handling pork at home. In both cases, the infection was due to S. suis type 1, in contrast to previous reports indicating an association between human infection and S. suis type 2. Epidemiologic surveys of human infection may be of interest, especially among individuals exposed to pigs and pork.