Echinococcus Infection Research Articles

Pulmonary Hydatid Disease in Iraq

Summary Echinococcosis is highly endemic in Iraq, especially in the central section. In Baghdad the incidence of hydatid disease is 1 in 292 patients admitted to hospital during the last 20 years. Figures from private practice give an infection rate of 1 in 187 patients seen during the last 14 years. In a survey of slaughtered animals at Risafa abattoir in Baghdad during the period July 1959 to March 1960, hydatid cysts were found in 42% of sheep, 12% of yearling lambs, 22% of cattle, 40% of goats, 50% of buffaloes, and 75% of camels. Echinococcus infection occurs in 18 to 85% of stray dogs in Baghdad. Cough, with or without hemoptysis, the most common symptom noted in pulmonary hydatid disease, was the chief complaint in 269 of 320 cases. The Casoni test was positive in 86% and the complement-fixation test in 20% of the cases studied. Most useful in diagnosis were the X-ray findings. Although the success rate in surgical treatment is high, and there is no other satisfactory form of treatment, it is believed that when cysts are small or deeply placed, in view of the surgical difficulties and the high rate of spontaneous cure, they should be left alone. As practical control measures, emphasis is placed on the importance of establishing licensed abattoirs, and the prohibition of unlicensed slaughtering of animals, along with the destruction of all stray dogs.

An Evaluation of the Hemagglutination and Flocculation Tests in the Diagnosis of Echinococcus Disease

Summary Boyden's tannic acid hemagglutination test (HA) and a bentonite flocculation test (BF) were evaluated for the detection of echinococcus disease in sera from 30 clinically diagnosed patients. In addition, the sensitivity of the test was evaluated with 246 sera from nonechinococcus individuals. The HA test was slightly more sensitive (96.6% of 30 sera) than the BF test (90.0% of 30 sera) in the detection of positive clinical echinococcus infections. In the titration of 246 nonechinococcus sera 14.2 per cent gave positive results with the HA test (titers of 1:50 or 1:100 in most instances). With the BF test 10.1 per cent of these sera were positive. The CF test was positive in only 36.3 per cent of 22 sera from patients with active infections of echinococcosis but showed no cross reactions with the nonechinococcus sera tested. A positive HA test and a positive BF test given by a serum from a case clinically diagnosed as echinococcosus, constitute presumptive evidence for the presence of echinococcus disease.

Diagnosis of Echinococcal (Hydatid) Disease in Man by Intradermal Reaction to Rabbit Cysticercus Antigen

SummaryAn extract of cysticerci of the common rabbit cestode, Taenia pisiformis, has been used as an antigen for skin testing in cases of echinococcal infection. An antigenic relationship between Taenia pisiformis and Taenia echinococcus is suggested by the precipitin-reaction, the alexin fixation, and the skin reaction in rabbits harboring Taenia pisiformis.Four patients known to have hydatid disease gave immediate positive skin reactions with the rabbit antigen. Twenty normal subjects used as controls exhibited at most but slight reactions, and were considered negative.

Echinococcus Infection in Louisiana

Summarizing the reports on hydatid disease in the United States, Magath (1937) concludes: A native citizen of the United States, who has never left his country, so rarely has hydatid disease that such an event will occur less often than once in five years. Thus the report of such a case of echinococcus cyst found in a native at necropsy may be justified. The patient, G. St., 72 years of age, male, white, born in Minnesota, came to New Orleans, La., when eight years old and never left this city. Neither he nor his wife remembers any disease during all these years and he never left his work for sickness. He was out of work only the last two years because of his age. In the last six months he noticed a swelling of his abdomen. Admitted to the Charity Hospital of Louisiana on June 17, 1937, his clinical picture was that of liver cirrhosis with ascites. The Wassermann reaction was negative, the X-ray plate of thorax and abdomen showed marked distension of the abdomen and increase in lung markings. The patient died on July 16, 1937, and the necropsy (Charity Hospital, New Orleans, La., A-37-712 T.) confirmed the clinical diagnosis: Laennec's atrophic cirrhosis of the liver. The liver was small, shrunken, atrophic, very rough and irregular, and nodular with increased consistency. Microscopically much of the liver parenchyma was replaced by fibrous connective tissue. In addition to this cirrhosis, on section the dome of the liver on the right side was the seat of a spherical encapsulated cyst measuring 4 cm in diameter and filled with thick, creamy, yellow, pasty material. The capsule of this cyst was very firm, hard and calcified, and about 1 mm in thickness. The microscopic examination of a decalcified section of the cyst wall showed the laminated chitin layers indicative of echinococcus cyst. The autopsy was performed by Dr. H. J. Schattenberg (Department of Pathology, Tulane University, New Orleans, La.).' Since such an echinococcus cyst can develop only after ingestion of eggs of the echinococcus adult, which lives in the intestifie of dogs, this patient must have come in contact with dogs infected with this tapeworm. No pet dogs were ever kept in the family of this patient. He was, however, employed at a railroad depot where he had to feed and to take care of the animals sent by express. Among these animals there were often

Generalized echinococcus infection of the peritoneum cured by salvarsan

Generalized echinococcus infection of the peritoneum cured by salvarsan

OBSERVATIONS ON THE CYSTS OF ENTAMOEBA TETRAGENA

When we consider the medical history of Panama with reference to the origin of its population, the negroes from Africa and possibly the Pacific Islands, Chinese, introduced by the French Canal Company ; Coolies, Sikhs and Bengalis from India, besides those representatives of the Caucasian race who have come from every portion of the tropical and subtropical world, Americans from the Philippines, various globe-trotters and "tropical tramps," we naturally expect to encounter here some of the diseases especially characteristic of other lands, and we are not surprised to find that echinococcus infections are confined strictly to Spanish laborers. Infection by<i>Taenia nana</i>and<i>T. saginata</i>occurs among Europeans and Americans. Bilharziosis comes almost exclusively from the French West India Islands,<i>Filaria demarquai</i>in negroes from St. Vincent, Old World hookworms, A.<i>duodenale</i>, among the West Indians, possibly introduced there by coolies. Trichinosis has been detected only among the Spanish (from Spain).