Case of the Week 623
 The following objects were seen on a peripheral blood film from a patient with chronic, worsening swelling in his groin over the past 5 years. He is from Central Africa. The stain is the Delafield ' s hematoxylin. Diagnosis?  (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - January 19, 2021 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs

Answer to Case 623
 Answer toParasite Case of the Week 623:Wuchereria bancroftimicrofilariaeThis case showed all of the classic features ofW. bancroftimicrofilariae, including the sheath which was nicely highlighted by the Delafield ' s hematoxylin stain. The sheath may not always be seen with routine Giemsa stain; when it is present, it often appears as a negatively-staining outline only. The Delafield ' s hematoxylin isn ' t routinely performed in the parasitology laboratory, but it is in all of the classic parasitology texts as an option for highlighting microfilariae sheaths. It ' s a beautiful stain!Here are the features of interes...
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - January 17, 2021 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs

Case of the Week 622
 This week ' s case was graciously donated by Dr. Kyle Rodino, one of our outstanding former Medical Microbiology fellows. The following specimen was submitted to the clinical microbiology laboratory in vodka (which deserves extra points for creativity). Identification? (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - January 11, 2021 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs

Answer to Case 622
 Answer to theParasite Case of the Week 622: drunken Pediculus humanus capitisThere are pretty entertaining and interesting comments that I would encourage you to read if you are interested! Here are some of the key findings in this case:Thanks again to Dr. Rodino for donating this interesting case. (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - January 10, 2021 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs

Case of the Week 621
Happy New Year everyone! We are going to kick off the New Year with a fascinating (and challenging) case by Idzi Potters and theInstitute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp. From Idzi: While I was rummaging through the education-samples, I stumbled upon a strange-looking, small vial, containing a liquid from unknown origin. When I looked at the identification label, I was quite surprised to find a name that sounded like a very exotic parasite …During a quick microscopical examination, I found eggs of about 60-70 µm in length.Who can guess which parasite I found? Hint: the source ended up being a cyst near the ear from a...
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - January 4, 2021 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs

Answer to Case 621
 Answer to theParasite Case of the Week 621:Poik ïlorchis(Achillurbainia)congolensis.Wow, I am so impressed with how many of you got this identification. This rare parasite was first described inNature in 1957 in a man from the Belgian Congo. From Idzi: Poikilorchis congolensis, or alternativelyAchillurbainia congolensis-as the genusPoïkilorchis (Fain and Vandepitte, 1957) was regarded by Dollfus as a synonym ofAchillurbainia (Dollfus, R. P., 1966. Personal communication).As far as I have found in the literature, it has been described in humans only eight times up ‘till now, although some authors su...
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - January 3, 2021 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs

Case of the Week 620
This week ' s case is a nice straight-forward one because - spoiler alert - we are going to have a really fun challenge from Idzi Potters next week to start off our new year. The following worm was found during routine colonoscopy. Identification? For ' extra credit ' - which end is anterior? And is this a male or female? (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - December 29, 2020 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs

Answer to Case 620
 Answer toParasite Case of the Week 620: Trichuris trichiura, a.k.a. " whipworm " . This is a male, as evidenced by its curled tail and copulatory spicule (note the location of the anterior and posterior ends):Be sure to check out the comments section to see all of the creative comments that go with this case! (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - December 27, 2020 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs

Case of the Week 619
 Dear readers,Wishing you and your family a very happy, safe and healthy holidays. To celebrate the season, I thought I would share a few of my favorite photographs from my 2020 calendar - all decked out for the holidays. Can you tell what they are? (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - December 21, 2020 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs

Answer to Case 619
Answers toParasite Case of the Week 619:Trichuris trichiura, Schistosoma couple, and Hymenolepis nana. (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - December 20, 2020 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs

Case of the Week 618
 This week ' s case features some photos from a cool histopathology case I found in my archives. The source is " large single liver cyst " . Identification? What cool things do you see in these images? (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - December 14, 2020 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs

Answer to Case 618
 Answer toParasite Case of the Week 618:Echinococcus granulosus sensu lato species complexThere are many cool features in this cool case. Here are just a few that I thought were worth pointing out:First, note how you can see a portion of all of the layers of the cyst. Going from the outside-inward, you can see the compressed host tissue, outer most parasite-derived layer (laminated layer), the granular layer, and several brood capsules, each containing multiple protoscoleces.Within the individual brood capsules are many inverted protoscoleces arising from the granular layer. We even managed to get a section showi...
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - December 13, 2020 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs

Case of the Week 617
 Here is our monthly case from Idzi Potters and theInstitute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp. The following were seen in a stool specimens in a patient with diarrhea and recent travel to sub-Saharan Africa. Unstained wet mount: Combined iron hematoxylin-Kinyoun stain:Identification? (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - December 7, 2020 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs

Answer to Case 617
 Answer toParasite Case of the Week 617:Cystoisospora(formerly Isospora)belliThe diagnostic features in this case include the size of the oocyst (~25 micrometers), oval shape, internal structure (single sporoblast in the wet prep) and acid fast positivity on the iron hematoxylin Kinyoun stain.  The acid fast positivity allows us to rule-outSarcocystissp. as the oocysts of this parasite are not acid fast. Kamran and Florida Fan noted that the oocysts ofC. belliautofluoresce beautifully when examined with an excitation filter of 330 to 365 nm. As Blaine will tell us, they also exhibit a less intense fluor...
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - December 7, 2020 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs

Case of the Week 616
 This week ' s interesting case was donated by Dr. Neil Anderson, one of our former outstanding Clinical Microbiology fellows. The following were seen in a bacterial culture from a stool specimen. What do you think the clinical significance is? (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - November 30, 2020 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs