Blastocystis hominis is a common inhabitant of the human bowel. It is now increasingly recognized as a potential cause of diarrhea. This article presents 12 cases of prolonged or recurrent diarrhea associated with B. hominis found in a large number. No other intestinal parasites were recognized. All patients responded to metronidazole. This report confirms that B. hominis may be a cause of intestinal disease.
Blastocystis hominis and Human Disease I read with interest the article by Sheehan et al. describing the association of Blastocystis hominis with signs and symptoms of human disease (2). A total of five or more B. hominis cells was observed in 11% of their patients, while this protozoan was the only parasite in 6% of their patients. There was a significant association of Entamoeba histolytica with B. hominis. During 1986 I examined purged stools of 276 patients with abdominal discomfort and recurrent diarrhea which lasted for 1 or more months. The stools were examined for the presence of intestinal parasites, especially E. histolytica, by using standard unstained wet mounts and smears stained with Quensel stain. The first portion of the stools was examined for the presence of eggs of intestinal helminths and cysts of intestinal protozoa. Bacterial analyses were performed by standard culture techniques (1). Of the total of 276 patients, 208 (72.46%) had no intestinal parasites and 68 (27.54%) had parasites. Some of the patients had more than one parasite (Table 1). A young woman had E. histolytica, B. hominis in small number, Entamoeba coli, and eggs of Taenia spp. The most frequent parasite was B. hominis (14.13%), but many of the patients had this protozoan in small number (less than five cells per 40x field). Only 10 (3.62%) of the patients had more than five B. hominis cells per x40 field. Four of them had other pathogens as well: two had Salmonella typhimurium and two had E. histolytica. So only six (2.17%) of the patients had B. hominis in large number, without other pathogens. E. histolytica was found in 17 (6.16%) cases, and only two of the patients had B.
This report describes two cases of isolation of Dacochordodes bacescui Capuse, 1966 from human intestinal infections. In the first case, two adult worms were identified in the vomitus of a man suffering from abdominal pain and nausea. In the second case, a worm was passed in the stool of a woman suffering from abdominal pain and pruritus. Human gastrointestinal infection with this parasite has not previously been reported.
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