Identification?
Would you normally expect to find this stage of egg in a human stool specimen?
Sunday, January 4, 2015
Case of the Week 331
Happy New Year to all of my Readers! Here is a special case for the start of 2015 - the beginnings of a parasite. These eggs were found in stool and measure approximately 60 micrometers in greatest dimension.
Identification?
Would you normally expect to find this stage of egg in a human stool specimen?
Identification?
Would you normally expect to find this stage of egg in a human stool specimen?
Fertile Ascaris spp.
ReplyDeleteAscaris lumbricoides egg. Certainly a normal stool would not have this egg. Though this stage is more likely found, the diagnosis may be a bit more challenging when it comes to unfertilized or decorticated egg of this round worm.
ReplyDeleteFlorida Fan
Agree with a fertilized Ascaris egg. You can certainly see this in the stool of an infected person and it means you have at least 2 worms, a male and a female.
ReplyDeleteA. lumbricoides ovum with a larva visible.
ReplyDeleteAscaris lumbricoides fertile egg with larva inside left its human host via feces perhaps a few days ago or more. Yes, previous host had female and male ascaris worms in its intestines but the larva in this defecated egg developed in a warm external environment. It might survive in warm soils or on foods for weeks or months before ingestion by another human host.
ReplyDeleteAscaris egg with larva - as embryonation takes a couple of weeks (minimum), then certainly you would not expect to see the larva in a fresh stool specimen, or even one a couple of days old.
ReplyDeleteHappy 2015 to parasitologists everywhere, and especially to Bobbi Pritt.