Parasite Case of the Week 743
Welcome back for more microfilariae from Idzi Potters and theInstitute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp. The following microfilariae were seen in Giemsa-stained thick blood films from a man living on Alor Island, Indonesia. They measure approximately 305-315 micrometers in length. What is your identification? What is your primary differential? (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - April 1, 2024 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
Answer to Case 742
Answer to theParasite Case of the Week 742:Wuchereria bancroftimicrofilariae.I really enjoyed reading the comments on this case. FloridaFan provided this excellent description of his approach to microfilariae identification: " First the width of the worm is about the same as that of the surrounding neutrophils. Second, its length is greater than 200 micrometers. Third, it has a sheath. Now we know we are dealing withLoa loa,Wuchereria, or theBrugiaones, not with any little peskyBrugia. The next consideration is that the column of nuclei is continuous, the terminal nuclei are not separate from the immediate anterior n...
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - March 24, 2024 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
Case of the Week 741
Wow, we are already on our 3rd filarial case! The following lovely case from Idzi Potters and the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, is another microfilaria found in blood. The patient is a middle aged male farmer from Central America who was noted to have mild eosinophilia on routine complete blood count. He is otherwise asymptomatic. The microfilariae measure approximately 175 micrometers in length. What is your identification? (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - March 19, 2024 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
Case of the Week 740
Welcome to our next filarial case by Idzi Potters and the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp. This week features the following lovely microfilariae seen in a Giemsa-stained thick blood film. They measure approximately 220 micrometers in length. Identification? (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - March 12, 2024 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
It's Finally Here - Filariasis Month with Idzi Potters! Case of the Week 739
Dear Readers,Welcome to Filariasis Month! We will actually have TWO months of filariae for you as there are so many to cover and so many beautiful cases by Idzi and theInstitute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp.Idzi and I thought that we should start out with an ' easy ' one. The following objects were seen on a blood smear from a patient living in Gabon. What is your identification? Bonus question: what additional laboratory test is important for guiding treatment?Giemsa stained blood films:Carazzi stain, thin blood film: (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - March 4, 2024 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
Answer to Case 739
Answer toParasite Case of the Week 739:Loa loamicrofilariaeThanks to everyone who wrote in with comments. We received a lot of different responses including some of the sheathed and unsheathed microfilariae. Therefore, this is a great time to review my approach to identifying microfilariae in blood specimens. You can also readthis articleI wrote with Blaine Mathison and Marc Couturier that provides a diagnostic algorithm for microfilariae in blood. In this algorithm, we recommend first measuring the length of the microfilariae. If they are small (<200 micrometers long), then it is likely to be one of theMansonella...
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - March 2, 2024 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
Get Ready for Filariae!
Dear Readers, I ' m delighted to announce that March and April areFilariasis Monthscourtesy of Idzi Potters and the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp! Image by Blaine MathisonYou may want to brush up on your filariae/microfilariae diagnostic skills in preparation. Here are a few resources to help you: World Health Organization Bench Aids for the Diagnosis of Filarial Infections. Available here: https://www.cdc.gov/dpdx/diagnosticprocedures/index.html (see the section on filariasis near the bottom right of the page)CDC DPDx - Laboratory Identification of Parasites of Public Health Concern:Lymphatic fi...
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - February 15, 2024 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
Case of the Week 733
This week ' s case is by Idzi Potters and theInstitute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp. The following object was removed from a furuncular skin lesion in a patient with recent travel to Uganda. Once they were able to keep it still (!), Idzi captured the following photographs demonstrating all of the diagnostic features. What is your identification? (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - December 7, 2023 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
Case of the Week 730
This week ' s case is generously donated by Idzi Potters and theInstitute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp.The following were seen in used contact lens solution from a young woman with complaints of eye pain and blurry vision. The first two images are taken with light microscopy, and the third with phase-contrast microscopy. What is your diagnosis? Please describe the forms you are seeing. (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - November 9, 2023 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
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I ' m not going to " do " Columbus this year. I think people are coming around to the consensus that he is not a person who should have statues or a day in his honor. I ' ll just outsource to Adam Conover That taken care of, I commend your attention to thisinterview by Scientific American with Peter Hotez, who is dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, on the authoritarian roots of science denial. Best you read the whole thing, but here ' s a pull quote.People call [the antiscience movement] “misinformation” or “the
infodemic” as though it’s just random junk out there on t...
Source: Stayin' Alive - October 9, 2023 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Case of the Week 718
Welcome back to our first case of the month, with a special case from Idzi Potters and theInstitute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp. The following structures were found in a bronchoalveolar lavage from a middle-aged Belgian patient with asthma who presented with increased shortness of breath. He reports no travel out-of-country and works as an administrator at an insurance company. He recently reported an insect infestation in his home.Video credits are for Monique Vatlet (CHU Ambroise Par é, Mons, Belgium).Identification? (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - June 5, 2023 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
Case of the Week 716
Happy May, everyone! As the first Monday of the month, it ' s time for our post fromIdzi Potters and theInstitute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp. Idzi was recently featured in agreat articleby the Institute - you should check it out! This month ' s case are the following objects seen in 3 different stains from a patient with sudden onset of profuse watery diarrhea and abdominal cramping:Concentrated wet preparation with Lugol ' s iodineHeine stainModified acid fast stainWhat is your diagnosis? (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - May 1, 2023 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
Case of the Week 703
This week ' s case is from Idzi Potters, Michiel R., and theInstitute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp. An adult male with quite an extensive travel life as a photographer in Africa (DR Congo and Ethiopia), is now since 2 months in Rwanda when he finds the following structure of almost 15cm in length in his underwear (after having an awkward sensation at the level of the anus).Can you identify this structure? (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - November 29, 2022 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
Case of the Week 697
It ' s time for our monthly case from Idzi Potters and theInstitute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp!The following structure was seen in a lugol-stained wet preparation of concentrated feces. The corresponding iron hematoxylin stained fecal smear showed the following:Identification? (Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites)
Source: Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites - October 3, 2022 Category: Parasitology Source Type: blogs
Meeting the Health Challenges of Displaced Populations from Ukraine
Yulia Ioffe (University of Oxford), Ibrahim Abubakar (University College London), Rita Issa (London School of Hygiene& Tropical Medicine), Paul Spiegel (Johns Hopkins University), Bernadete Nirmal Kumar (CIRGH), Meeting the Health Challenges of Displaced Populations from Ukraine, SSRN (2022): The... (Source: HealthLawProf Blog)
Source: HealthLawProf Blog - August 25, 2022 Category: Medical Law Authors: Katharine Van Tassel Source Type: blogs
