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Answer to Case 680
 Answer:Strongyloides stercoralishyperinfectionThis impressive case shows numerous L3 (or possibly L4)S. stercoralislarvae from bronchial washings, and the accompanying culture plates showing bacterial colonies growing in the wake of migrating larvae. Thanks again to Harsha and Lauren for donating this case! (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - May 1, 2022 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs

Case of the Week 679
Here is a beautiful tick for you all to identify from Florida Fan - something that is very timely for this season! You can use thisTICK KEY to help you get it into the correct genus. What is the potential significance of this finding? (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - April 13, 2022 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs

Answer to Case 679
 Answer toParasite Case of the Week 679:Haemaphysalissp. Congratulations to Blaine Mathison, Khaled Itani, Olugbenga Samuel Babatunde, Souti Prasad Sarkhel, Robyn Nadolny, Marc Couturier, @TickReport, and Alvaro Faccini-Martinez for the correct identification! It can be tricky to differentiateHaemaphysalisfrom fromRhipicephalus, so I created the following pictorial guide to help illustrate the key features. In the end, it all comes down to a difference of angles - inHaemaphysalis,the outward facing angle is from the palps, whereas withRhipicephalus,it ' s from the basis capituli. Both of these tick...
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - April 12, 2022 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs

Case of the Week 678
This week ' s fascinating and unusual case was donated by Dr. Vicki Schnadig at University of Texas Medical Branch. The patient is an elderly woman from rural Louisiana who presented with a subcutaneous thigh nodule. Dr. Schnadig ' s team first performed a fine needle aspirate of the lesion which showed the following laminated spherical structure, but no definitive pathogen:Following this, the team noted a worm-like object protruding from the aspiration site and pulled it out:The following are histologic sections of this object:Diagnosis? (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - April 5, 2022 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs

Answer to Case 678
 Answer to theParasite Case of the Week 678: Sparganosis - infection with the larval form (sparganum) of Spirometrasp.  Kudos to Dr. Francisco Bravo for getting the correct answer, and for the nice description from Florida Fan.This was a fascinating case as sparganosis is a relatively rare parasitic infection in humans, and the way it was discovered following fine needle aspiration is very unique. It ' s possible that the laminated calcification seen on the aspirate smear is a calcareous corpuscle, but it ' s hard to know for sure. Therefore, it was a good thing that the sparganum began to extrude from the a...
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - April 3, 2022 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs

Case of the Week 677
This week ' s case came through my lab awhile back and was beautifully captured in the following photographs by Emily Fernholz. The specimen is a Giemsa-stained thin blood film from a patient with travel to Botswana. What parasite is seen here? (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - March 29, 2022 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs

Answer to Case 677
Answer toParasite Case of the Week 677:Plasmodium malariae with classic band and schizont forms. There is also a hint of a basket form, and a nice collection of merozoites that recently burst out of an infected red blood cell. Note that the infected cells are smaller than the uninfected neighboring cells, which is classic for this species. Thank you for all of the great comments! (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - March 28, 2022 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs

Case of the Week 676
This week ' s case is generously donated by Dr. Adrienne Showler. The following was passed in stool by an ' adventurous eater ' , who regularly enjoys raw fish dishes, and also has tried raw beef and pork dishes in the United States. He reports passing similar objects on 4 separate occasions, and the length of each was between 1 and 3 feet. Unfortunately he didn ' t collect the samples (!), so we only have these photographs:Likely identification?  (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - March 15, 2022 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs

Answer to Case 676
 Answer to theParasite Case of the Week 676: Cestode, most likelyDiphyllobothrium/Dibothriocephalus/Adenocephalusspecies. TheCDC DPDx webpage on diphyllobothriasis explains how some of the names have changed for this group of tapeworms.Unfortunately the specimen was not submitted to the laboratory and we therefore can ' t fully examine it. However, central uterine structure seen in the photo below is consistent with an adult tapeworm of the family Diphyllobothriidae:Thanks again to Dr. Showler for contributing this case! (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - March 14, 2022 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs

Case of the Week 675
 This week ' s case was donated by Dr. Paul Valenstein, and it is a beautiful example of an uncommon finding. It is an eyelid biopsy from a 6-year-old African child.Diagnosis? (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - March 6, 2022 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs

Answer to Case 675
Answer to theParasite Case of the Week 675: Coenurosis, a tapeworm infection with the larval form of coenurus-forming Taeniaspecies, such asT. multiceps(the most commonly implicated species), T. serialis, T. brauni,andT. glomeratus. Some of you noted the resemblance of this tissue infection with cysticercosis. That makes sense since human cysticercosis is due to the related cestode,Taenia solium.The primary difference is the presence of a single protoscolex in cysticercosis, vs. multiple protoscoleces in coenurosis.Here is my approach to the diagnosis:We can first tell this is a cestode by the presence of the cal...
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - March 5, 2022 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs

Case of the Week 674
This week ' s case is courtesy of Dr. Charlie Huskins, one of our pediatric ID physicians. The parents of his patient found the following bug in their home and were concerned that it might be a disease vector. They are concerned that it might have bitten their child, as they have identified a potential ' bite ' mark.Of note, the family lives in the midwestern United States and has no history of recent travel. What is the general identification of this bug? Is there any concern for disease transmission? (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - March 1, 2022 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs

Answer to Case 674
 Answer to theParasite Case of the Week 674: Not a human ectoparasite or disease vector; this is one of the Coreidae or " leaf-footed " bugs, most likely the western conifer seed bug (Leptoglossus occidentalis). The nickname comes from the leaf-like expansions on the legs of some species, usually on the hind tibiae. Leptolossus does not bite or sting, but can give off a pungent odor when disturbed. It feeds on sap and has long piercing mouthparts.  The importance of this case is that the specimen is a very convincing mimic of the triatomine vector ofTrypanosoma cruzi - commonly called the " ki...
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - March 1, 2022 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs

Case of the Week 673
Welcome to Case of the Week 673, for this interesting day of two ' s (2/22/22 or 22/2/22, depending on your preferred format). To recognized this day, I ' ve chosen a parasite to go with our theme of two ' s - histologic section of two parasites in lung tissue. You can clickHERE to go to the digital image and view these parasites at higher magnification. Our non-pathologists may find the eggs seen on the digital slide to be quite helpful for making the diagnosis. What is your identification of these parasites? Are there any other associated " two ' s " that you can think of? (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - February 22, 2022 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs

Answer to Case 673
 Answer to theParasite Case of the Week 673:Paragonimusspecies; two adult flukes within lung tissue.You can tell that these are flukes by their loose stroma, thin eosinophilic tegument (outer layer) with prominent spines, and suckers. As noted by Florida Fan, the characteristic eggs (each with a shouldered operculum), along with the location, are helpful in identifying this as aParagonimusspecies. Excellent job!   (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - February 21, 2022 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs