This week's case is by Florida Fan, and represents a nearly 'picture perfect' representation of a particular filarial species in a peripheral blood smear. What is your identification? For students, residents, and fellows - this is a classic, and definitely fair game on exams!
4 comments:
microfilaria of Brugia malayi
Obvious terminal and sub-terminal nuclei present
Cephalic space: long : twice as long as its width
agree with brugia malayi microfilaria
I think we see the pink sheat
Brugia malayi? /Patrik
Definitely textbook example of Brugia sp. microfilaria!
Two species of Brugia are possible: Brugia malayi and Brugia timori.
To decide which one, either geographical information is needed (B. timori is more restricted to the Lesser Sunda Islands of the Indonesian archipelago - from Bali over Timor to the Tanimbar Islands - while B. malayi is more widespread in South-East Asia), or information about the used staining for the blood film (both Brugia species have a sheath in fact, but if the smear is stained with Giemsa, the sheath of B. timori is ususally not visible).
As in this case the sheath is clearly visible (and assuming that the slide is stained with Giemsa), I'd say "Brugia malayi", but with caution nevertheless...!
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