ROLE OF ABSOLUTE EOSINOPHIL COUNT AS A MODALITY OF INVESTIGATION IN SUSPECTED CASES OF HELMINTHIC INFESTATION IN CHILDREN AGED BETWEEN 5 TO 15 YEARS WITH COMPARISON TO STOOL ROUTINE AND MICROSCOPY

Abstract

Introduction: Eosinophilia is a well-known host immune response in helminthic infestation. This study was carried out to investigate whether a correlation exists between absolute eosinophil count in children with stool specimen positive for helminthic infestation. Aim And Objective: To determine average raised absolute eosinophil count in children who were having various helminthic infestation with stool specimen positive. Materials And Methods: A hospital based cross sectional study done at Navodaya medical college hospital and research centre during 2019 October to 2020 September for a period of 12 months. Both blood and stool samples were obtained from a total of 69 suspected children after examined, categorised into 2 groups. Among them 24 cases were positive of helminthic infestation and 45 cases were negative. T-test and descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data. Results: The study revealed that children infested with helminths found to have higher absolute eosinophil count (mean 4644/µl (95%CI; 3474-4212) than not infested (mean 801/µl (95%CI; 616-945) with p value <0.001. In this helminth's family; nematodes, trematodes, cestodes showed mean values of absolute eosinophil count were 5206/µl (4806-7151/µl), 4930/µl (4500-5382/µl) and 2179/µl (2500-1669/µl) respectively. Conclusions: Raised absolute eosinophil count has been observed in stool specimen positive cases of helminths, especially more in nematodes. Therefore, should be considered for a single dose of albendazole.