JournalTOCs

Boletin Chileno de Parasitologia

Open Access journal
ISSN (Online) 0365-9402
Published by SciELO

[694 journals]

Una nueva revista biomédica: Parasitología Latinoamericana
A new biomedical magazine: Parasitología Latinoamericana
Inmunodiagnosis of human trichinosis
- Abstract: An indirect hemagglutination test (IHAT) and an ELISA test for trichinosis using as antigen a larvae soluble fraction from Trichinella spiralis was carried out for the detection of IgG, IgM and IgA specific antibodies in 113 serum samples from patients confirmed or suspected to have trichinosis by strong clinical and epidemiological evidences (Group I). The same tests were also performed on 110 serum samples corresponding to patients without strong evidences of having trichinosis (Group II). In Group I the corresponding sensitivities for RHAI, ELISA IgG, ELISA IgM, ELISA IgA were: 82.3-85.8-88.5 and 88.5% respectively. Seventeen patients were tested again a week after the first analysis (10 of them corresponded to negative ones), increasing the positivity: 23.5-100.0;35.3-100.0;41.2-100.0 and 41.2-100.0% for RHAI, ELISA IgG, ELISA IgM and ELISA IgA, respectively. Other two patients were followed-up for 5 years. IHAT and ELISA IgG remained positive, whereas ELISA IgM and ELISA IgA were constantly negative betweeen 17 and 32 months in one case, and between 48 and 60 months in the other (this last one had presented a severe clinic disease). In the group II, four patients were positive with IHAT, however only one for ELISA IgA, the latter also presented ELISA IgM near the cut off. The use of ELISA IgG, ELSIA IgM and ELISA IgA in the immunodiagnosis of trichinosis is discussed.
Biological behavior of Triatoma pallidipennis (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) in the State of Morelos, México
- Abstract: T. pallidipennis was found naturally infected in localities of domestic, peridomestic and wild areas in the State of Morelos, México. In agreement with the triatomines high potentiality like vectors of T. cruzi, protozoan that causes Chagas' disease and the knowledge of these bugs in México, the aim of the present research was to collect triatomines for assessment of T. cruzi infection, to characterize and compare life cycles, identification of feeding preferences and observe indexes of experimental infectivity. Seven isolates of T. cruzi were obtained, from differents localities which curves of parasites showed different behaviors. Histopathological study, carried out by counting of amastigotes nests, which affected the gastrocnemius muscle and heard was observed. The life cycles of T. pallidipennis was completed in 131 days. The feeding preferences were rats, cats and pigs.
Morphometric and biological studies on xiphidiocercariae (Trematoda) recovered from Lymnaea columella Say, 1817 (Basommatophora, Lymnaeidae) and Biomphalaria tenagophila Orbigny, 1835 (Basommatophora, Planorbidae) from Miracatu, São Paulo State, Brazil
- Abstract: Two species of xiphidiocercariae probably belonging to the family Haematoloechidae (Trematoda) emerging from Lymnaea columella (Basommatophora, Lymnaeidae) and Biomphalaria tenagophila (Basommatophora, Planorbidae) collected in Miracatu City, São Paulo State, Brazil, between September 1996 and February 1999 were described. The xiphidiocercariae eliminated by L. columella presented a terminal membrane in the tail that morphologicaly differenciated them from those obtained from B. tenagophila. These late xiphidiocercariae were 1.3 times bigger than the former and with the of that ventral sucker bigger than the oral one, while the former presented a sucker size relation inverse. The stylet observed in the xiphidiocercariae eliminated by B. tenagophila oral sucker was shorter than that observed in xiphidiocercariae obtained from L. columella.
Hepatic fascioliasis simulating hepatic tumors
- Abstract: Two cases of hepatic fascioliasis which simulated hepatic tumors are presented: Patient 1. (42-year-old woman), presented pain in the epigastric and right hypochondrium. US, CAT and MNR suggested a cholangiocarcinoma. She was operated on by practicing hepatic segmentectomy, cholecystectomy and closign of a cholecystogastric fistula. The extirpated hepatic segment presented a tumoral aspect, but its histopathological study revealed numerous granulomas, some of them with F. hepatica eggs and others with Charcot - Leyden crystals. ELISA and complement fixation reaction for fascioliasis resulted positive. Search of F. hepatica eggs in stools was negative. The patient was treated with triclabendazole. Patient 2. (58-year-old woman) also presented pains in the upper hemiabdomen. Hypereosinophilia (32%). Abdominal CAT showed multiple hipondense irregular zones suggesting infiltrative processes in the liver right lobe. The hepatic biopsy, under CAT, eventhough lead to think in a hamartoma, a diagnosis of chronic cholangitis compatible with a parasitic etiology raised. ELISA and complement fixation reaction for fascioliasis were positive. Coproparasitological exams for F. Hapatica resulted negative. She was successfully treated with triclabendazole. Hapatic fascioliasis simulates numerous diseases, among them hepatic tumors.
Strongyloides stercoralis infections in Chile
- Abstract: A limited epidemiological information on Strongyloides stercoralis infection excists in Chile. In 1983 a mentally retarded 53-year-old man died by disseminated strongyloidiosis associated with malabsortion syndrome, this case constitutes the first histopathological confirmation of the parasitose in Chile. Later on, cases have been described in hospitalized patients in mental institutions from the central part of the country, where the frequency of infection registered in studies carried out in the Psyquiatric Hospital of Putaendo in 1985 and 1987-1989 were 11.6% and 7.0%. In 1992 an outbreak of strongyloidiasis that affected 13 out of 55 children in a nutritional recuperation center in the north extreme of Chile was reported. In 2000 four cases were detected in a group of 20 hospitalized mental affected patients with elevated eosinophilia. Sensitive methods for detecting larvae in stool samples and seroepidemiological surveys would permit determine the importance of this human heminthic infection in Chile.
Mexico iniciative: A proposal for the epidemiological control and surveillance of Chagas disease in Mexico
- Abstract: It is showed the programme for the knowledge, control and epidemiological surveillance of Chagas disease in Mexico.
Fragments of entomology and parasitology in the western lierature: from Cervantes to Saramago
- Abstract: In an attempt to amplify the perspective of allusions made to entomological and parasitological situations in the 20th century Latin American narrative, a total of 25 books written by Jorge Amado (1912-2001), Miguel Angel Asturias (1899-1974), Albert Camus (1913-1960), Camilo José Cela (1916), Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616), Julio Cortazar (1914-1984), Fedor Dostoievski (1821-1881), Jorge Edwards (1931), William Faulkner (1897-1962), Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880), Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1928), Herman Hesse (1877-1962), Victor Hugo (1802-1885), Franz Kafka (1883-1924), Patricio Manns (1937), Benito Perez Galdos (1843-1920), Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936), Marcel Proust (1871-1922), Francisco de Quevedo (1580-1645), Ernesto Sabato (1911), Jose Saramago (1922), Alexander Soljenitsin (1918) and Leon Tolstoy (1828-1910) has been reviewed. We have selectively extracted paragraphs and fragments from them, in which in a direct or metaphoric form varied entomological or parasitological situations are quoted, by thematic affinity, in an ordered presentation.
Intestinal parasitic infections in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive individuals in Southeastern Venezuela
- Abstract: Un estudio fue realizado en relación a establecer la presencia de parásitos intestinales en 35 pacientes infectados con el virus de la inmunodeficiencia humana (VIH), desde julio 1997 a octubre 1998, admitidos en el Hospital Universitario "Ruiz y Páez" de Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela. Parásitos fueron detectados en heces usando diversos métodos para la investigación de protozoos y hemintos, concentración éter-formalina, tinción de Kinyoung y tricromico. Edad, sexo, estado clínico de la infección de VIH fueron registrados para cada participante del estudio. Todos los pacientes presentaron diarrea crónica. En 20 pacientes infectados con VIH (57%), uno o más parásitos intestinales fueron encontrados. Los protozoos más frecuentemente encontrados fueron: Blastocystis hominis (28,6%), Cryptosporidium sp. (22,8%) e Isospora belli (2,9%). Microsporidia no fueron detectados. Estos datos enfatizan la importancia de los portozoos oportunistas en pacientes infectados con VIH.
Implementation of an ELISA technique in the diagnosis of equine fascioliasis
- Abstract: And indirect enzyme linked immunosorbent assay was developed for the diagnosis of fascioliasis in naturally infected equines as a screening test with secretory and excretory antigens of adult flukes, in order to support the diagnosis of the disease. Fascioliasis in an economically important disease and the trematode Fasciola hepatica infects a wide variety of mammals and occasionally can infect man. The standarization was performed with negative sera (collected in the XII Region of Chile) and positive sera checked by post mortem examination. The evaluation was done in 226 sera samples: 115 negative, and 70 positive with confirmed fascioliasis, 19 from animals with other pathologies and 22 from apparently healthy animals. The ELISA presented a 85.7% of sensibility and a 97.4% of specificity.
Seroepidemiological study of human hydatidosis in San Juan de la Costa County, Osorno, X Region, Chile
- Abstract: San Juan de la Costa County (40º 45' South lat., 73º 19' West long.) is located in the Osorno province, South of Chile. Its population is 11,445. The basic economic activities are agriculture,cattle raising, fishery, timber production and manufacture of wood and coal. According to official reports, the incidence of human hydatidosis in Chile and Osorno province, in 1999, was 1.8 and 12.5 per 100,000 respectively. In order to contribute to a better knowledge of the epidemiology of human hydatidosis, an indirect hemagglutination test (IHAT) and ELISA IgG for hydatidosis were performed to 533 randomized people. Three (0.56%) resulted positive. Parallelly, a socio-epidemiological survey on hydatidosis was carried out: the majority of people had some basic knowledge about some aspects of hydatidosis transmission. Some considerations on the corresponding prophylatic measures are mentioned.
Prevalence of Toxocara canis eggs in squares of the Metropolitan Region of Santiago, Chile
- Abstract: In order to stablish the current prevalence by eggs of Toxocara canis, 110 squares of five zones of the Metropolitan Region of Santiago city were examined by a flotation in saturated zinc solution modified method. Samples were taken from different kinds of soil in the four seasons of the year and they were preserved under anaerobic conditions over 2 years. 18,2% of samples resulted positive to Toxocara canis eggs and 26.4% were positive to nematodes larvae. No viable eggs were found. Western zone is the most contaminated of the city and autumn is the season in which we obtained higher recovery of eggs. Silty clay sample soil seems to be better than sandy soils on maintenance of studied eggs.
A new species of the genus Severianoia (Schwenk) (Nematoda: Thelastomatidae) a parasite of Diloboderus abderus Sturm (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) in Argentina
- Abstract: Severanoia brevicauda n. sp., a parasite of larvae of Diloboderus abderus in Argentina, is described and illustrated. It can be characterized by having the vulva situated at the posterior middle of the body, the eggs without sculpture, the male with three pairs of genital papillae of which one pair is preanal and two pairs postanal. The tail appendage in both sexes is short.
Rhabdochona indiana n. sp. (Nematoda: Rhabdochonidae) from the intestine of Pempheris vanicolensis
- Abstract: Rhabdochona indiana es una nueva especie obtenida desde el intestino de Pempheris vanicolensis (Cuvier), un pez marino procedente de Poodimadaka, Andhra Pradesh. Esta especie difiere de otras en el número y distribución de las papilas caudales, largo de las espículas, solevantamientos que sirven de apoyo a la cápsula bucal y medidas corporales.