Answer to the Parasite Case of the Week 656: mite, probable contaminant from the environment. Not likely of human medical significance.
As several readers noted, this mite is not one of the 2 human pathogenic mites, Sarcoptes scabei or Demodex. Instead, it is likely a mite from the environment, such as Dermatophagoides, the dust mite. The presence of many squamous epithelial cells in the background would support this idea:
You can read the following posts for more information for how to differentiate the various mites found in human specimens:
Case of the Week 634: Free-living mite found in stool
Case of the Week 196: Differentiating Sarcoptes scabei from other mites
Case of the Week 601: Key identifying features of Sarcoptes scabei
No comments:
Post a Comment