PubMed · 779611
The source did not provide an abstract. Follow the original record for more information.
Explore connections, maps & timelines
C D Leake. 1976. How I am.. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.pa.16.040176.000245
Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.
KEEP EXPLORING
A 1.5-year-old Suffolk ewe with acute onset of incoordination and blindness unresponsive to antibiotic treatment was examined at necropsy. The meninges were congested, opaque, and thick. Microscopically, focal areas of hypercellularity in the left cortical gray matter and the meninges were observed. The inflammatory response consisted of gliosis and perivascular cuffing (lymphocytes, plasma cells, and variable numbers of eosinophils). An amebic organism in 2 life stages was found in the cerebral parenchyma. Numerous large (15 to 35 microns in diameter) organisms, interpreted as trophozoites, were characterized by vacuolated cytoplasm and small nuclei with a prominent eosinophilic nucleolus (karyosome). The smaller (10 to 17 microns in diameter) encysted stage was surrounded by a capsule-like membrane, and contained a large central body sometimes surrounded by a clear halo. Immunofluorescence studies for amebic antigens were strongly positive for an ameba recently isolated in human beings and baboons (Leptomyxid sp).
Although amebiasis is often considered a disease of developing countries, it is an important public health problem throughout the world. At least 90% of infected patients are asymptomatic, but the remainder may present with clinical syndromes ranging from frank dysentery to abscesses of the liver, lungs, or brain. The most common challenge for physicians in developed countries is treating infection due to Entamoeba histolytica in an asymptomatic patient or determining its clinical significance in a patient with AIDS who has diarrhea. In light of recent improvements in diagnosis and therapy, the protean clinical manifestations of amebic infection are reviewed along with the indications for therapy. Advances in research that may directly affect our management of amebiasis in the near future are highlighted.