Irritable Bowel Syndrome in Patients with Blastocystis hominis Infection

Abstract

The prevalence of Blastocystis hominis in stool specimens of individuals with gastrointestinal symptoms was evaluated to study a possible link between the protozoan and the irritable bowel syndrome. According to the Rome diagnostic criteria, 388 patients were evaluated. Altogether, 81 patients were classified as affected by irritable bowel syndrome. Blastocystis hominis was recovered from the stools of 38 subjects, 15 of whom belonged to the group with irritable bowel syndrome (P = 0.006). In addition, patients with irritable bowel syndrome were significantly more likely to have five or more Blastocystis hominis organisms per field (P = 0.031). In conclusion, there was a set of patients with irritable bowel syndrome in whom the presence of Blastocystis hominis may not be incidental.

Micro-eukaryotic diversity of the human distal gut microbiota: qualitative assessment using culture-dependent and -independent analysis of faeces

“…Although these are routinely cited as a common human intestinal parasite or pathogen and have been suggested as an aetiological agent in many GI illness, including diarrhoea, inflammatory bowel disease and irritable bowel syndrome (Giacometti et al, 1999;Yakoob et al, 2004;Stark et al, 2007), it is believed that the potential pathogenicity of Blastocystis is subtype-dependent (Kaneda et al, 2001;Tan et al, 2006). Genetic and polymorphic variations of Blastocystis are well reported in the literature and classification schemes based on 18S rRNA genes and elongation factor genes have been used to infer phylogenetic relationships and discrete lineages (Ho et al, 2000;Abe, 2004;Yoshikawa et al, 2004), and the phylogenetic tree constructed from Blastocystis sequences obtained from different individuals analysed in this study falls into distinct phylogenetic clades or subtypes that have been previously defined (Arisue et al, 2003;Stensvold et al, 2007a).…”

Recent Developments in Blastocystis Research

“…There are two reasons for this. The most telling is that people diagnosed with IBS appear in several studies to have a much higher infection rate with Blastocystis -often twice as high or more (Giacometti et al, 1999;Jimenez-Gonzalez et al, 2012;Yakoob et al, 2010;Yakoob et al, 2004). The second is that many of the symptoms ascribed to Blastocystis infection are very similar to those defining some types of IBS (diarrhoea, vomiting, abdominal cramps and bloating), suggesting either that Blastocystis colonisation may be a differential diagnosis or that Blastocystis is the causative agent in some cases of IBS.…”

Trastornos gastrointestinales en Guatemala y su relación con infecciones parasitarias

“…Sin embargo, todas estos factores o alteraciones pueden encontrarse en sujetos sanos sin síntomas, tampoco existe una clara relación causa-efecto, y por otro lado, el tratamiento de estas alteraciones no se traduce en una mejoría de los síntomas. Las infecciones, tanto bacterianas como parasitarias, se ha intentado involucrar en la etiopatogenia de los trastornos funcionales digestivos fundamentalmente en el SII (18)(19)(20). El mecanismo por el cual producirían los síntomas es desconocido.…”