Entamoeba histolytica cyst passers

Abstract

The present study was carried out to examine whether Entamoeba histolytica cyst passers suffer from any parasite-related bowel symptoms and to assess the frequency of spontaneous eradication of this infection. The study was carried out in two parts. In part I, stool samples were collected at random from 3536 individuals living in rural communities around Delhi. E. histolytica was isolated by the culture technique in 345 (9.7%) subjects. There was no increase in the prevalence rate of bowel symptoms in the culture-positive compared to the culture-negative subjects. One hundred twenty-four (36%) of the culture-positive subjects agreed to take part in a longitudinal study; the subjects were left untreated and clinical assessment and stool examinations were carried out at three-month intervals. One hundred eighteen (95.2%) subjects had eradicated their parasite spontaneously at the end of one year; none developed any features of invasive amebiasis. Part II of the study was carried out on 625 patients attending our Gastroenterology Clinic. Positive cultures of E. histolytica were obtained from 99 (15.2%) patients. Again, there was no increase in the prevalence rate of bowel complaints in the culture-positive compared to the culture-negative subjects. Moreover, histological appearances of the rectal biopsy specimens were not significantly different between the two groups. Twenty-eight (28.2%) patients agreed to the longitudinal study and all eradicated the parasite spontaneously within five months; none developed any evidence of invasive amebiasis.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Diversity and Plasticity of Virulent Characteristics of Entamoeba histolytica

“…Although a large number of infections remain asymptomatic, there are various types of symptomatic presentations ( Figure 1 ). It is traditionally said that 10% of infected cases show symptoms [ 6 ]; however, the real percentages of symptomatic patients in the diagnosed- E. histolytica infection are varied, ranging from <1% to 92% in the targeted populations, and depend on the diagnostic tools [ 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 ]. The previous report showed that the parasite can be spontaneously eradicated within a mean period of 8.6 months without any treatment [ 21 ]; therefore, the symptomatic percentage in E. histolytica -infected patients may be influenced by the timing of specific diagnostic procedures and the clinical severity of amebiasis.…”

“…This problem may be caused by the limitation of observational parts in the colon when it is performed on via sigmoidoscopy. Certainly, in some cases, the parasite does not suffer from any parasite-related bowel complaints and can be eradicated spontaneously [ 20 ]. However, the appropriate treatment is currently warranted in all cases of infection with E. histolytica , even in asymptomatic individuals, because there a lot of personal factors influencing the transformation of the silent disease into more severe disease, such as age, pregnancy, corticosteroid, malignancy, malnutrition, and alcoholism [ 1 , 27 , 29 ].…”