Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Case of the Week 257

The following case was generously donated by Blaine Mathison.  It is a photograph from a slide stained with a fluorescent antibody to a particular parasite.  The green fluorescing objects measure approximately 4-6 micrometers in diameter.  Diagnosis?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cryptosporidium?

Anonymous said...

With this size and the direct fluorescent assay, on can only direct the diagnosis toward Cryptosporidium parvum. On a side note, we should be a bit cautious not to rely solely on the fluorescent test as the conjugate does not react positively to all species of Cryptosporidium capable of causing diarrhoea. Our experience is that, if you find small 4-6 microns refringent green organisms either with your iodine prep or better with your eosin prep (somewhat like a small Granny Smith apple with a bite on the side) and the DFA is negative, we can confirm with the carbol fuchsin acid fast stain for the presence of Cryptosporidium species. We did have a few cases like this in our lab.

Florida Fan

Anonymous said...

Very nice inclusion of the Starship Enterprise Blaine.

Florida Fan

Anonymous said...

Cryptosporidium

Anonymous said...

Cryptosporidium enterprisium?

Lee

Anonymous said...

This is the most entertaining case I've seen so far. Cryptosporidium it is.

-E.T.

Anonymous said...

Cryptosporidium But can't call it parvum could be other like hominus

Anonymous said...

Cryptosporidium species,

Scotty beam me up !

Hans Naus