Background:Many laboratories currently diagnose Blastocystis spp. infections by looking for the presence of vacuolar forms in faeces and the amoeboid form in diarrheal stools.Objectives:To investigate the best direct method in diagnosis of Blastocystis spp. and to study different morphological forms of the parasite.Materials and Methods:The study was carried out on one thousand and two hundred diarrheic stool samples. All samples were examined using direct smear, iodine stained smear, formalin-ether concentration techniques, trichrome stained smear and in vitro cultivation using Jones' medium.Results:Using direct smear, Blastocystis spp was detected in 42 cases (3.5%) with a sensitivity (28.4%) and specificity (100%). Iodine stained smear detected 72 positive cases (6%) with a sensitivity (48.7%), specificity (100%). Formol ether concentration technique detected 120 positive cases (10%) with a sensitivity (81.1%) and specificity (100%). Trichrome stained smear detected 148 positive cases (12.3%). In vitro cultivation using Joni's medium detected 274 positive cases (22.8%) which was the highest number among all different diagnostic methods with a sensitivity (100%) ,specificity (88%), PPV (54.1%) and NPV (100%). It was found that, 49 blastocystosis cases had mixed infection with other intestinal parasites. Giardia lamblia was the most frequently associated parasite with Blastocystis spp.Conclusion:In vitro cultivation is more sensitive in detection of B. hominis than simple smear and concentration technique. Blastocystis spp. vacuolar form was the most common form that was found by all methods used in this study G. lamblia was the most frequent parasite associated with Blastocystis spp .

A cross sectional study compared the clinical features of the pulmonary and hepatic hydatid cysts in children and adults and evaluated IHAT and ELISA techniques in diagnosis. The results showed that the patients ages were 5-14 years (10.6±3.7) in children and 16-75 years (32.2±14) in adults, patients 34 (75.5%) had liver cysts, 25 (55.5%) had pulmonary cysts and 7 (15.5%) had both liver and lung cysts. In hepatic hydatidosis, 7/34 (20.5%) cases were asymptomatic while others showed variable clinical manifestations. The commonest symptom was localized right hypochondrial pain in 13 (38.2%) and the least one was jaundice in 4 (11.7%). The commonest sign was abdominal masses on the right hypochondrium in 88.2% and the least one was ascites in 5.8%.The commonest symptom of pulmonary hydatidosis was chest pain in 8 (34.7%) followed by cough and hemoptysis on 4 (17.3%) and the least one was cough and fever (8.6%).Pulmonary hydatid cysts in children were significantly higher in males (17.3%) than females (4.3%), but without significance in adults (26% in male vs. 21.7% in females). Sex difference in hydatid cyst frequencies between adults and children was significant (P <0.05). Mixed hepatic and pulmonary cysts were less in children than in adults (14.3%vs 85.7%), with huge pulmonary cysts of 20 cm were more common in children (37.7%) than in adults (17.7%). The high sensitivity (95.5%) of ELISA-IgG recommended this test showed a dependable sero-diagnosing one.

Urinary schistosomiasis caused by Schistosoma haematobium constitutes a major public health problem in many tropical and sub-tropical countries. This study was conducted to evaluate circulating cathodic antigen cassette test and haematuria strip test for detection of S. haematobium in urine samples and to evaluate their screening performance among the study population. Microscopy was used as a gold standard. A total of 600 urine samples were examined by microscopy for detection of S. haematobium eggs, screened for microhaematuria using Self-Stik reagent strips and screened for circulating cathodic antigen (CCA) using the urine-CCA cassette test. The specificity of CCA, microhaematuria and macrohaematuria was 96.4, 40.6 and 31.2 % respectively while the sensitivity was 88.2, 99.3 and 100 % respectively which was statistically significant (P \ 0.001). These findings suggest that using of urine-CCA cassette test in diagnosis of urinary schistosomiasis is highly specific (96.4 %) compared with the highly sensitive haematuria strip test (100 %). The degree of agreement between microscopic examination and CCA detection was 99.3 % with highly statistically significant difference (P \ 0.001). The combination of two techniques could potentially use for screening and mapping of S. haematobium infection.

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Giardia lamblia and Helicobacter pylori are two microorganisms that grow in duodenum and stomach; and sharing the same mode of infection. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is an end stage disease causing uremia that requires hemodialysis (HD). The association of Giardia lamblia and H. pylori infection has been known to be common and hemodialysis may play an important role on this co-infection. This study evaluated the interrelation of Giardia lamblia and H. pylori in patients of CKD treated with hemodialysis.A case-control study performed on two hundred stool samples collected from patients attending Beni-Suef University Hospital suffering from diarrhea and other GIT symptoms. One hundred patients suffering from CKD and treated with hemodialysis and a hundred control group with normal kidney functions of both genders. Both groups were subjected to coproparasitological examination and fecal immuno-assays.The results showed that Giardia in 13 CKD patients with a mean age of 45.24±14.52 and in 22 cross-matched control patients. Males showed prevalent of (66%), who were from rural areas (66.5%) and using tap water (83.5%). H. pylori infection was in 22 patients CKD and in 27 control patients. Co-infection was found in 10 CKD patients and 19 of control.