Case of the Week 782

This week's case was generously donated by Dr. Adrienne Showler. The following image is from a video capsule endoscopy performed on an immunocompromised patient with diarrhea. The patient has not travelled outside of the US and has no other risk factors for parasitic infection. Numerous of these objects were seen - none were moving. Identification?

Answer to Case 782

 Answer to the Parasite Case of the Week 782: Not a parasite. 

Most closely resembles banana "seeds" (tannin bodies). 

While we will never know for sure, the beaded/fragmented appearance and dark color of these objects allow us to identify this as a non-parasitic object that closely resembles banana tannin bodies. You can read more about banana tannin bodies in my previous cases 139 and 468. In particular, I recommend checking out Case 468 which shows my experiment to recreate a partially-digested banana.

Thanks again to Dr. Adrienne Showler for donating this interesting case!

Case of the Week 781

This week's case features a beautiful video from Dr. Rasool Jafari. The specimen is skin scrapings. What is your identification?

Answer to Case 781

 Answer to Parasite Case of the Week 781: Demodex sp.  The legs and gnathosoma (with mouthparts) are nicely demonstrated:

I can't quite tell if this is D. brevis, or Demodex folliculorum with a scrunched-up tail. 

We've had some great cases of Demodex on the blog over the years. Here is the list in no particular order:

Case of the Week 535 (with a poem from Blaine Mathison 😁), donated by Dr. Kabeer Shah.

Case 581 - showing an adult D. folliculorum and a video of 2 mites within a hair follicle. Also with a poem by Old One. This case was donated by Theodore Trejo and shows beautiful detail of the adult mite.

Case 702 - from the Mayo Clinic Mycology lab showing D. brevis on calcofluor white fluorescent stain.

Cases 278 - showing a pair of mites on calcofluor white fluorescent staining - with another poem from Blaine! I hadn't realized how many poems we have collected. This case was donated by Florida Fan.

Case 606 - donated by Dr. Sandeep T and showing a lovely long D. folliculorum.

Case 772 - This is the tricky case from last month with the twisted tail. Donated by Dr. Evis Nushi.

Case 503 - from Florida Fan with a really nice side-by-side view on light and fluorescence microscopy.

Case 334 - showing several D. folliculorum mites from eyelash scrapings. Donated by Dr. Robin Chamberland - with yet another poem by Blaine. All of the poems are different from one another, and very fun to read. 

Case 58 - the very first Demodex that I ever posted - 16 years ago!

Case 190 - a beautiful example of D. folliculorum in a hair follicle in an H&E-stained histopathology preparation. It was donated by Dr. Holkmann Olsen and is the best example I've ever seen of the mouthparts and legs in a histopathological section. 

Case 308 - and finally, an amazing case by Florida Fan that shows Sarcoptes scabei and Demodex folliculorum mites in the same image. 

I've been blessed to have so many fabulous case donations over the years. Many thanks to Dr. Rasool Jafari for donating this fascinating case.