An 80 year old woman developed fever 11 days after volvulus surgery. A peripheral blood smear showed numerous yeast cells--both extraleucocytic and intraleucocytic--as well as leucoagglutination. The fungal elements included blastospores, pseudohyphae, and germ tubes. Two days later, blood cultures yielded Candida albicans, Enterobacter aerogenes, and Staphlococcus aureus. The patient had no me...

BACKGROUND Endemic relapsing fever remains under diagnosed in our area according to a low index of suspicion among clinicians, as well as its difficult diagnosis. The goal of this study was to present the epidemiological aspects of the disease in western Iran. METHODS In this analytical-descriptive cross-sectional study, the epidemiological and clinical aspects of relapsing fever were investi...

Anaplasmosis and ehrlichiosis are emerging tick-borne diseases with clinically similar presentations caused by closely related pathogens. Currently, laboratories rely predominantly on blood smear analysis (for the detection of intracellular morulae) and on serologic tests, both of which have recognized limitations, for diagnostic purposes. We compared the performance of a published real-time PC...

e read with great interest the Letter to the Editor by Grotto1 n the need to follow the Clinical and Laboratory Standards nstitute 2007 H20-A22 guidelines during microscopic analyis in reply to the study by Comar et al.3 We appreciate the omments that ensured extensive discussion on this subject. The work of Barnes et al.,4 which represents the core of he criteria for blood smear review (BSR) r...

OBJECTIVES To detect malarial parasites using the peripheral blood smear (PBS) and to compare the PBS with the immunochromatographic antigen test (i.e. OptiMAL and polymerase chain reaction (PCR)). METHODS Six ml of blood was collected from each of 170 patients clinically suspected of having malaria. These samples were used to perform PBS examination, the OptiMAL test and PCR by standard prot...

BACKGROUND Travelers to malarious areas are at risk of acquiring malaria; however, with chemoprophylaxis and prompt, effective therapy, serious complications of infection are generally preventable. In June 2002, we investigated a report of a cluster of malaria cases among US university staff and students who visited Ghana and were reportedly adherent to appropriate malaria chemoprophylaxis. M...

Specific duplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was employed on 411 (386 cattle and 25 buffaloes) blood samples of dairy animals from 9 districts of Punjab, India, for simultaneous detection of Babesia bigemina and Trypanosoma evansi. The results were compared and correlated with conventional Giemsa stained thin blood smear (GSTBS) examination and haematological alterations to know the clinical...

in peripheral blood smear is a rare occurrence and usually a cause for concern. However, some studies correlate schizontaemia to current or impending symptoms and/ or hyperparasitaemia1, while other studies do not indicate severity and same was observed in uncomplicated cases2. A potential confounder for the clinical consideration of the presence of schizonts may be the missed diagnosis of othe...

Objectives The primary objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of Anaplasma phagocytophilum infection and exposure in adult feral cats in Massachusetts, an endemic area for A phagocytophilum and its tick vector Ixodes scapularis. The secondary objective was to determine if there were correlations between A phagocytophilum infection and the presence of anemia and thrombocytopenia...

Clinical diagnosis of malaria suffers from poor specificity leading to overtreatment with antimalarial medications. Alternatives, like blood smear microscopy or antigen-based tests, require a blood sample. We investigate in vivo microscopy as a needle-free malaria diagnostic. Two optical signatures, birefringence and absorbance, of the endogenous malaria by-product hemozoin were evaluated as in...