Prevalence of Opportunistic Parasites Among Liver Cirrhosis Patients in Beni-Suef

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Medical Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Beni-Suef University.

2 Department of Medical Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University.

3 Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Tropical Medicine, Beni-Suef University.

Abstract

Liver cirrhosis patients are susceptible to many opportunistic parasitic infections such as Cryptosporidium spp., Isospora belli (I. belli) and Blastocystis hominis (B. hominis)as there are variable degrees of immune alteration accompanying cirrhosis, that affect the innate and adaptive immunity, according to the extent of liver damage.
             A total of 135 stool samples were collected from patients who attended the outpatient clinics of Tropical Medicine Departments, Faculty of Medicine, and Beni-Suef University Hospitals. Patients were classified into two groups: the cases group which contained 90 patients suffering from liver cirrhosis with gastrointestinal (GIT) symptoms (mainly abdominal pain and diarrhea) and the control group formed of 45 patients complaining of gastrointestinal symptoms without liver cirrhosis. The samples were microscopically examined directly by wet saline and Lugol’s iodine mounts. Negative specimens were reexamined after the formal-ether concentration method. Samples were then stained with modified Ziehl-Neelsen (MZN) stain for the suspected presence of Cryptosporidium spp.
               The most prevalent protozoan was B. hominis in both cases and control groups, followed by Cryptosporidium spp. with a higher percentage in the cases group(26.7% vs 11.1% and 21.1% vs 4.4% respectively), and both were statistically significant (P=0.038 and 0.012 respectively).  Capillaria was the most frequent helminth found in both cases and control groups (6.7% vs 4.4%). However, the correlation to liver cirrhosis was insignificant (p < /em>= 0.718).

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