Sunday, February 9, 2014

Case of the Week 291

The following was seen in a Giemsa-stained thick peripheral blood film from an immigrant from Congo.  The patient reports focal swelling and tenderness in his left arm, but is otherwise asymptomatic.

(shown at 1000x magnification

7 comments:

mona said...

Microfilaria of Loa loa

Anonymous said...

First, this is a sheathed microfilaria. The cephalic space and empty caudal space were evident. The sheath did not stain pink like the one of B. malayii. The nuclei extends to the end of the interior end. The morphologic features and the geographic location were consistent with Loa loa.

Florida Fan

Unknown said...

Filaria is sheathed, body nuclei extend to the tip of the tail. It looks like Loa loa.

Ligozzi Marco said...

Thick blood film, allowing microfilaria of Loa loa depicting the ghost of the sheath and the nuclei coming to the tip of the tail. Microfilariae of Loa loa have body nuclei that are continuous from tip to tail. This distinguishes them from microfilariae of Wuchereria bancrofti and Brugia malayi which have extended sheaths on both ends.
I thank Dr. BOBBI PRITT for the initiative concerning the proposed cases.

Marco Ligozzi
Dip patology and diagnostic University of Verona Italy
marco.ligozzi@univr.it

Lukus Roberts said...

geographical location, extended sheath at tail, body nuclei extending throughout body length, all usggestive of Loa Loa microfilaria.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Loa loa microfilariae