The director of our lab's cytology department brought a PAP smear in
to microbiology today. On the slide was an organism that resembled a
louse, but it was very round with nothing sticking out and not
elongated. The whole organism was easily visualized under 45X
objective. I'm sorry I didn't get accurate measurements. There were
no visible legs, but we couldn't tell if it was curled up or not. On
the back end were approximately eight tiny hairs arranged singly that
were arranged four on each side and continued up half way up the
body. Under oil immersion it almost looked as if it were emerging
from some sort of egg case.
I have searched many parasitology web sites and cannot find any
pictures of any early stages of crab lice. It really doesn't look
like this organism to me. Do pubic or other lice have a larval stage
per se? Where might I find pictures of these if they exist? Most of
us in our department have only ever seen nits and adults. We only saw
one organism on the thin prep and they were going to make another to
see if they could find more.
Anyone have a clue as to what this may be? I wish I had a picture but
I don't. I personally think this is an incidental finding, but
apparently the woman had some pathology that may or may not have
something to do with this organism.
Thanks for any help.
Judy Dilworth, M.T. (ASCP)
Microbiology
