James Mahaffy wrote:
>> Folks,
>> A colleague of mine with some med tech experience (he teaches many of our premeds here), looked at the urine of a middle aged female and found what is obviously some parasites. You can see his sketches of what he found in the urine (he centrifuged it to concentrate the material) at url: http://www.dordt.edu/~mahaffy/pics/para2.jpg>> Since I teach Zoology he asked me what it might be. It looked a bit Platyhelminthes to me. We looked at the latest edition (sixth) of Schmidt and Roberts. The eggs with their spine looked a bit like Schistosoma but other than bird Schistosoma (swimmers itch) I have never heard of the parasite being in the area. The person with the infection has not traveled to an area where human Schistosoma is common. The other structures don't fit well with other stages of Schistosoma. Can anyone help. We will of course send the patient to the local MD's but it doesn't sound like something that is common around here.
>> James Mahaffy (mahaffy at dordt.edu) Phone: 712 722-6279
> Biology Department FAX : 712 722-1198
> Dordt College, Sioux Center IA 51250
>> ---
It is rather difficult to recognize the particles from the sketch. Most
of them are pollen grains. Three other resemble fungal spores. Still
other resemble mineral particles and tiny fragments of plant tissues.
Bird and fish schistosomes never maturate within human body. Future
examinations call for the use of perfectly clean, capped collection
vessels and centrifuge tubes. Prior to the collection of urine patients
must perfectly wash their inmost body parts!
T.M.
