Monday, May 11, 2009

Case of the Week 69

The following were seen under 40x magnification growing on tap water agar, 5 days after inoculation with brain tissue. The patient had a slowly progressive meningoencephalitis. Identification? What stages of this organism are seen in this image? (CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE).


3 comments:

Alasdair Hill said...

I think its Acanthamoebea spp. Nasty stuff. We see the double membrane of the cyst and the trophozoite in the bottom field have some spikey protrusions.

Unknown said...

I agree with Acanthamoeba. It's one of the "stars" of the amoeba world, and the cyst reminds me of that. I believe the disease process is much quicker with Naeglaria (and Balamuthia, too, I think).

Anonymous said...

Well, it's a difficult choice for me between Acanthamoeba and N.fowleri, however given the somewhat insidious process in the vignette, I'll go with Acanthamoeba.
N. fowleri is usually a nasty, fulminant couse of illness.

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