Sunday, March 2, 2008

Parasite Case of the Week 11

Welcome to the Parasite C.O.W.
Every Monday I will post a new case, as well as the answer to the previous case (you will find it below the corresponding case). Please feel free to leave a comment or your thoughts regarding the diagnosis. Enjoy!

These 1 to 1 and 1/2 inch worms take up residence in human mesenteric veins.

Questions:
Identification?
How many worms are present in this video?


Video taken at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Shown with permission.

6 comments:

Heather said...

These would be "copulatory pairs" of Schisotosomes, so there would be 4 worms, with the smaller females lying up inside of the much larger males. I'm not sure if this is definitely S. mansoni, or if S. haematobium worms would appear identical to mansonis? Anyone?

Anonymous said...

I agree with Heather, though I haven't a clue as to whether they are mansoni or heamatobium.

I think it's kind of cute how they can snuggle up together like that. Looks cozy.

Anonymous said...

One married couple and a batchelor is my guess.

Anonymous said...

Three

Anonymous said...

i'm going to say 4 S. mansoni. they have rough looking skin, i think S. haematobium has smooth skin. is that true?

Anonymous said...

Schistosomes (blood flukes). I'm not sure you can tell the species by the adult form - though it's usually japonicum and mansoni that inhabit the mesenteric veins. The eggs, on the other hand, have more distinctive features. S. hematobium eggs have an apical spine/knob. S. mansoni eggs have a spine on the side. And S. japonicum are more round with a spine on the side.

As for the #, I think there's 4 though it's hard to tell with the guy in the corner.