Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites

The following structures were seen on a bronchial brush specimen from an 83 year old male with a chronic cough.  The structures were moving ...

Answer:  Ciliocytophthoria, a.k.a. detached ciliary tufts from ciliated epithelial cells.   Florida Fan mentions that "Considering ho...

The following is a corneal biopsy from a woman with a red and painful eye. H&E, 100x magnification H&E, 1000x magnification ...

Answer:  Amebic keratitis due to Acanthamoeba species.  The double-walled cysts and trophozoites are characteristic: ...

The following is an unstained muscle biopsy pressed between 2 glass slides.  The patient experienced myalgia and facial edema 1 week after e...

Answer:   Trichinella species larvae. This is the classic appearance of Trichinella  larvae coiled within muscle.  To answer Yenni's q...

Fluid was aspirated from 2 liver cysts in a middle aged Iraqi woman and sent to the Clinical Parasitology lab for identification.  The follo...

Answer :   Echinococcus sp. protoscoleces Thank you all for writing in.  I agree that this is, statistically speaking, Echinococcus granul...

The following  ~4 mm white-cream object was identified in the diaper of a 2 year old asymptomatic male.  Identification?

Answer:   Hymenolepis nana , the dwarf tapeworm This worm is usually acquired through ingestion of an infected arthropod intermediate host...