Clinical changes caused by the liver fluke Metorchis conjunctus in cats

Cats infected with metacercariae of the fluke Metorchis conjunctus were followed clinically through their infection. Cats given 200 metacercariae showed few symptoms. All the cats passed ova on the 17th day. Three hundred metacercariae caused diarrhea, icterus, discolored urine, green feces and eosinophilia after 18 to 21 days. Eosinophilia, leucine aminopeptidase and alanine aminotransferase were elevated and remain the best indicators for metorchiasis. The hematological and serological abnormalities resolved rapidly and were absent from cats with chronic infection. Acute lesions (less than 32 days) were confined to the biliary trees with extensive epithelial exfoliation, fibrosis, and pus from necrosis, tissue feeding by the worms and pressure atrophy. Chronic infections (32 to 150 days) caused hyperplasia of the bile epithelium, proliferation of connective tissues, and fibrosis of the perilobular areas. Intense eosinophilic infiltrates were replaced by mononuclear cells. Granuloma formation around an ovum was seen in one cat 719 days after infection. Adult worms established preferentially in the left lateral lobe and never in the caudal lobe. No gall bladder involvement was found even in heavy infections.

[Blood glucose level in hepato-intestinal schistosomiasis]

Comparative oral glucose tolerance test performed in 30 patients with hepato-intestinal schistosomiasis and 30 controls, showed that the mean value of glycemia in the former group was superior. However, none of these patients show a diabetic G.T.T. curve.

Plasma levels of ACTH and cortisol in bilharzial and non-bilharzial individuals during halothane and nitrous oxide anaesthesia

The effect of stress of anaesthesia and surgery was studied in non-bilharzial and bilharzial individuals. Estimation of ACTH and cortisol was carried out by the radio-immunoassay (RIA) technique. The level of ACTH and cortisol was found to be lower in unanaesthetized bilharzial subjects than in normal individuals. Under the effect of anaesthesia and surgery the elevation in the level of both hormones was also lower in bilharzial than in non-bilharzial patients. The response to the stress of anaesthesia and surgery was more marked during halothane than during nitrous oxide anaesthesia.

Serum alphafetoprotein (AFP) in bilharziasis

Two hundred and eighty-four patients of various ages from an endemic area, diagnosed as having bilharziasis by the presence of living Schistosoma haematobium's ova in the mid-stream urine sample, have been investigated for the presence of alphafetoprotein (AFP) in the serum. One hundred and forty-one (49.6%), were positive; no false positives have occurred. Radioimmunoassay is capable of increasing the positivity rate still further. The detection of AFP will be of limited value as a screening test in countries where bilharziasis is endemic.

Copper and ceruloplasmin contents in the blood serum of peripheral and pre-hepatic veins

Cooper and ceruloplasmin contents were determined in samples of peripheral and pre-hepatic venous blood of 11 patients with Manson's schistosomiasis and one patient with hepatolenticular degeneration, all of çhich submitted either to porto-caval or spleno-renal shunt. Individual difference were not significant in any of the non-Wilsonian patients. The results are discussed in regard to the current knowledge on the pathogenesis of Wilson's disease.

Effectiveness of the nitroblue tetrazolium test in demonstrating reduced bactericidal activity of polymorphonuclear neutrophils in schistosomal hepatosplenomegaly and ascites

The nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT) test was carried out on blood from ten normal individuals and 20 schistosomal patients, ten of whom had hepatosplenomegaly and ten hepatosplenomegaly and ascites. The test revealed defective neutrophils in patients who had hepatosplenomegaly accompained by ascites. The phagocytic and bactericidal effects from five of each of the two groups of patients; results substantiated tose obtained by the NBT screening test. The NBT screening test thus proved useful in detecting acquired defective function of neutrophils in a helminthic parasitic disease that is accompanied by frequent bacterial infections.

The nephropathy of experimental hepatosplenic schistosomiasis

The glomerular lesions induced in 10 chimpanzees infected with variable numbers of Schistosoma japonicum cercariae were studied by means of light and electron microscopy and fluorescent antibody technic. Ten animals served as controls; 5 were uninfected and 5 were only lightly infected. The animals were observed for periods ranging from 3 to 17 months, and by the time of sacrifice, all had developed advanced liver fibrosis. In general, the degree of glomerular injury was related to infection intensity and degree and duration of portal liver fibrosis. Some animals had terminal BUN elevation and slight proteinuria. By light and electron microscopy, in the initial stages, only part of the glomeruli were involved and exhibited mesangial matrix expansion and mesangial cell proliferation with intracellular hyaline droplets. At later stages, a larger number of glomeruli were affected and exhibited diffuse hypercellularity, glomerular basement thickening, mesangial sclerosis and less often, focal necrosis, crescent formation, synechiae and global hyalinization. In addition, there were discrete electron-dense deposits localized in the mesangial area in some glomeruli. Immunofluorescent studies utilizing antisera to chimpanzee gamma-globulin and complement (C3) and to human properdin disclosed only faint deposits of C3, apparently in mesangial areas. The association of hepatosplenic schistosomiasis and nephropathy, the possible role of schistosomal antigen and the mechanism(s) of such glomerular injuries are reviewed and compared with the disease in humans and other host species infected with Schistosoma.