Diagnosis of Microsporidia and Cryptosporidium spp.in Childhood Cancer

The present work constitutes a prospective study on children suffering from diarrhoea; including 60 paediatric cancer patients and 60 paediatric noncancerous patients as a control group. All faecal specimens were examined parasitologically using the AFT, MTS and MZN staining techniques. Among 60 diarrhoeic paediatric cancer cases, 16 (26.7%) were positive for microsporidia by using both AFT and MTS staining techniques. On the other hand, Cryptosporidium were detected in 6 (10.0%) of cases using both AFT and MZN staining techniques. The agreement between the AFT technique with the MTS and MZN staining technique was statistically highly significant by Kappa statistics (K = 0.66, P 0.001).

Autorentext

Mona Said El-Sherbini obtained her doctor's degree in Medical Parasitology from the School of Medicine,Cairo University,Egypt in 2016. Her research interests include the study of intracellular protozoa, more specifically on populations whose immune system cannot defeat the possible complications caused by such opportunistic parasites.