Saturday, February 20, 2016

Case of the Week 386

This week's case was discovered by the awesome techs in my lab while examining a concentrated wet-preparation from a stool specimen submitted for routine parasite exam. This is the only one of these objects identified. No further history was available.

100x magnification

400x magnification

Identification? What is the significance of this finding?


11 comments:

Anonymous said...

The morphology is compatible with a mite.The head is too pointed for this specimen to be an itch mite Sarcoptes scabiei. It could be just a dust mite or another mite, though I wonder whether the patient had consumed some Mimolette cheese? This ingestion could be voluntary in savoring the cheese and if not then it can be purely incidental, in any case there is no medical significance associated with this finding.

Florida Fan

Eagleville said...

Looks like Sarcoptes scabei. Could it have been in the perianal region and "hopped" a ride with the feces?

Anonymous said...

Could be a dust mite.

-HLCM fan

Anonymous said...

It's a mite, it has a small stinger at the front with which it can suck blood.
It is much smaller than a thick.
Probably a lucky find :)

Angela C. said...

Intestinal acariasis

Angela C. said...

Intestinal acariasis

Anonymous said...

Some kind of mite, but not scabies...Lee

Unknown said...

I would say for certain this is not Sarcoptes, there is a lot about the morphology which is dissimilar. The other major differential would be demodex, but again, the morphology is very inconsistent. With that in mind it is unlikely to be an ingested individual from an existing parasitism. I would say that this is an ingested dust mite: Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus, the morphology is consistent as is the presentation in the stool which I see a lot of in animals (eggs and adults) so is probably relatively common in humans too.

Anonymous said...

I have no idea and with 1 of none would ignore as noise...rather than raise a red flag.

Will be fun to hear the truth.

Richard Garcia-Kennedy

Anonymous said...

The mites knowledge of a technologist as I am can only be described as "skin deep". We have learned to ignore the commercial ads of mattresses, threatening our health if we do not buy a new one. I also witnessed the consternation of a former manager when he saw the mites' tracts on a fungus culture: the dreadful contamination of a Mycology lab.
In fact these creatures have been around homo sapiens for so long that we have even utilized them to add flavor to our otherwise bland taste buds, as cited in this article:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jun/26/free-the-cheese-mites/
All in all, this animalcule though an unusual find should not give any of us an "itch" and we can continue to proclaim: "Vive le fromage".

Florida Fan

William Sears said...

Tyrophagus sp (perhaps putrescentiae). This could indicate that he has been eating mushrooms or stored food such as cheese, meats, etc. Also it can become a contaminant in a mycology lab.