[Study on the presence of Cryptosporidium in Umbria]

Abstract

Cryptosporidium is an intestinal protozoan parasite belonging to the same family as Isospora and Toxoplasma. Cryptosporidium can cause severe, life-threatening enteritis in immunocompromised patients; he can also cause much less severe diarrhea in immunocompetent humans and in several animal species. Cryptosporidiosis has been diagnosed by identification of characteristic cocysts in fecal smear. In order to detect the small numbers of oocysts excreted, a modified Teleman-Miyagawa concentration technique was used. After, the faecal smears were stained by means of the dimethyl-sulfoxide (DMSO) acid-fast method. During 12 months, 157 specimens of faeces of patients with diarrhoea and 75 stool samples of asymptomatic humans were examined. Cryptosporidium was identified, only, in 2 of 157 stools of patients with diarrhoea. These two patients were less than 2 years of age. Cryptosporidial oocysts not were seen in the faeces of 75 asymptomatic humans and of 35 (only 20 with diarrhoea) immunocompromised patients. Failure to detect the agent in immunosuppressed patients in likely related to poor number of examinated cases. In conclusion, routine laboratory studies to identify Cryptosporidium in the stools of immunocompromised patients seem justified, since the parasite causes in these patients severe opportunistic also extra-intestinal infections.