Dientamoeba fragilis Infection in Patients with Digestive and Non-Digestive Symptoms: A Case-Control Study.

Dientamoeba fragilis Infection in Patients with Digestive and Non-Digestive Symptoms: A Case-Control Study. Korean J Parasitol. 2020 Apr;58(2):129-134 Authors: Hawash YA, Ismail KA, Saber T, Eed EM, Khalifa AS, Alsharif KF, Alghamdi SA Abstract In most developing countries, Dientamoeba fragilis infection is an obscure protozoan infection. We aimed to determine a frequency and clinical importance of D. fragilis infection in Taif, Saudi Arabia. A 1-year case control study included patients with gastrointestinal (cases, n=114) or non-gastrointestinal symptoms (controls, n=90). The fecal samples were examined with the classical parasitological methods for intestinal protozoa, and by real time PCR for D. fragilis. The infection by D. fragilis was detected in 5.8% by PCR and in 4.4% patients by microscopy. The infection was identified more in control group (n=9) than in cases (n=3); a sole infection in 11 patients and mixed with Giardia in 1 patient. The other enteric parasites detected were Blastocystis sp. (8.3%), Giardia sp. (5.3%), Cryptosporidium sp. (2.9%), Entamoeba histolytica (1.4%), Entamoeba coli (0.9%) and Hymenolepis nana (0.4%). Our results tend to reinforce the need to increase awareness of D. fragilis infection in Saudi Arabia. PMID: 32418381 [PubMed - in process]
Source: Korean Journal of Parasitology - Category: Parasitology Tags: Korean J Parasitol Source Type: research