Answer to Case 629

 Answer toParasite Case of the Week 629: hookworm ova - eitherAncylostoma duodenaleorNecator americanus. As stated well by Sam, "Finally! An end to the " is this hookworm? " trilogy. Haha 😁 " You can see a couple of good examples of hookworm egg mimics in my last two cases.He and TheOracle also noted that the second image had Charcot-Leyden crystals, a breakdown product of eosinophils:Idzi commented that "If you would ask for the " most-likely " identification, I ' d dare guessing " Ancylostoma duodenale " - not per s é due to the fact that the patient is from the African continent (as migration and travel have mixed A.duodenale and N. americanus geographically up), but the second picture shows an egg with a very low number of blastomeres (only 4!). This low level of cleavage in freshly produced feces is more ty pical for A. duodenale. Necator usually has " already " about 8 blastomeres in freshly passed feces. That being said, I ' d still report this as hookworm ova... "  Lastly, Sarah astutely commented on my FacebookParasiteWonders page that this was "Probably hookworm, but I feel like this is a trick problem and I wouldn ’t be discounting Oesophagostomum—they’re also pretty barrel shaped which is suspicious for Oes. " I love the healthy skepticism! I have certainly been known to post ' trick ' cases. The parasite that Sarah mentioned,Oesophagostomum,is a nematode in the family Strongylidae that is found in tropical setting...
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs