[Autochthonous subcutaneous dirofilariasis in Israel]

BACKGROUND

Canine dirofilariasis has been recognized for over 300 years, but human dirofilariasis has received relatively little attention. Sporadic cases of human dirofilariasis have been reported in Israel. Dogs, cats and foxes are the reservoir, mosquitoes of the genera Culex and Aedes are the vectors and humans are the accidental hosts.

CASE REPORT

We present a case of human dirofilariasis (Dirofilaria repens) in a young Israeli patient. The thickness of the multilayered cuticle of the worm, the size of the body and the form and numbers of the longitudinal ridges on its surface are used in the histological diagnosis of the parasite.

CONCLUSIONS

Since our patient had never been abroad, this case must be considered an autochthonous infection. Furthermore, since the reservoir and the vectors are abundant in Israel, the potential for human infection exists, but probably this pathology is underdiagnosed in primary care practice.

The Water Vapor Linestrengths between 11 600 and 12 750 cm-1

The water vapor linestrengths in the region of the 3nu + delta resonance polyad of interacting vibrational states (the corresponding upper states are (310), (211), (112), (013), (131), (230), (032), and (051)) have been analyzed leading to accurate dipole moment transition parameters. The effective rotational Hamiltonian constants used to calculate the vibration-rotation wavefunctions (J.-M. Flaud, C. Camy-Peyret, A. Bykov, O. Naumenko, T. Petrova, A. Scherbakov, L. Sinitsa, 1994. J. Mol. Spectrosc. 183, 300-309) take into account both strong centrifugal distortion effects and dark states presence. These effects are known to be important for the highly excited vibrational states of water-like molecules. The input data set included the line intensities measured by Toth (R. Toth, 1994. J. Mol. Spectrosc. 166, 176-183) and the line intensities of the weak bands 2nu1 + 3nu2, 3nu2 + 2nu3, and 3nu1 + nu2 derived from peak absorptions of a spectrum recorded at a pressure of 17.0 Torr and a path length of 434 m. The parameters of the effective dipole moment operator determined by least square fitting give a very satisfactory agreement with experimental values since the mean error for the 876 experimental linestrengths is only 3.9%. It is worth noticing that such an agreement could be reached only because high-order resonance couplings with dark states were explicitly taken into account. Copyright 1997 Academic Press. Copyright 1997Academic Press

The High-Resolution Spectrum of Water Vapor between 11 600 and 12 750 cm-1

The absorption spectrum of water vapor has been recorded between 11 600 and 12 750 cm-1 with a Fourier transform spectrometer (Kitt Peak, Az) at a resolution of 0.012 cm-1 and with a path length of 434 m. The line assignment has led to the determination of 506 accurate energy levels of the (310) (211), (112), (013), (230), (131), (032), and (051) vibrational states which belong to the so-called 3nu + delta resonance polyad. The rotational energy levels obtained are on the average in agreement with those reported recently by R. Toth (J. Mol. Spectrosc. 166, 176-183 (1994)) for the strong bands, but there are differences for high J levels or weak bands levels (about 15% of all levels). The experimental rotational energy levels have been fitted using Pade-Borel approximants and a set of 104 vibrational energies and rotational, resonance, and centrifugal distortion constants for the (310), (211), (112), (013), (230), (131), (032), and (051) vibrational states have been determined.