Monday, September 18, 2017

Case of the Week 460

This week's fun case was donated by Florida Fan. The following motile object was submitted along with an adult Ascaris lumbricoides. Specimen source is stool.

Wet prep:
 Trichrome stain:
Identification?
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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Balantidium coli

September 18, 2017 at 5:04 PM
Sheldon Campbell said...

Yes, distinctively Balantidium coli. I wonder if the Ascaris was A. suis, as Balantidium is associate with exposure to pigs.

September 18, 2017 at 9:49 PM
Anthony Rochester said...

Its got a lot more little round things inside of it than any picture of Balantidium I've seen..

September 19, 2017 at 3:07 AM
Anonymous said...

I am leaning toward Balantidium coli if only because its the only ciliated intestinal parasite in my handy atlas. Is the looping movement in the video what Ash & Orihel describe as a "rotary, boring motion?" If so, I disagree...I don't find it boring at all!

Mark Fox

September 19, 2017 at 8:08 AM
Idzi P. said...

I agree with Balantidium coli...
The only other ciliate I ever found in stools was Paramecium sp. (contamination with water from toilet).
Size could be handy for confirmation (if this structure is 45microns, I'd definitely go for B.coli...).
Sheldon has a good point about the Ascaris suis. B.coli is often found in pigfarms...

September 19, 2017 at 11:56 AM
Anonymous said...

Sheldon and Idzi,
Sorry I had only limited info on this female patient. You raised a very good point about the Ascaris being possibly an Ascaris suis. When I was teaching medical technologist students, I often had to go to pig farms for teaching materials for subjects like this.
Florida Fan

September 19, 2017 at 6:36 PM

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