Parasitic infections in humans can be detected through blood tests and stools.Different infections have their own diagnostic standards.
Indications for examinations for parasitic infections are not asymptomatic;They always have some symptoms.Therefore, you should take a blood test or stool for parasites if you have a health complaint.Preventive tests are not required if there are no symptoms.Suspicious symptoms for parasitic infections:
- prolonged temperature increase to 37-37.5 degrees;
- fatigue without cause;
- Rash on the skin that suddenly appears and disappears;
- Senak - rush in the stomach, gas, diarrhea;
- Anemia detection;
- Weight loss with normal appetite.
Only in some cases one should be tested for parasites, even if he or she has no complaints.This is an examination when applying for a job or enrolling in the study, obtaining a certificate for swimming, or prior to surgery.In such cases, references to the tests needed are given by the general practitioner or pediatric specialist.
What is a parasitic infection that can be tested?
Using various tests, any parasite infection can be detected.Available:
- Intestinal parasites - live in the intestinal lumen and excrete eggs in the stool;
- Extraintestinal - live in various organs, do not produce eggs.
Intestinal parasites can be identified by stool analysis, extraintestinal parasites - only with blood.
Opisthorchiasis
Infections caused by flatworm opisthorchis.A person becomes infected with a river fish - dried or dry, that is, not thermal processed.Opisthorchiasis does not spread among people, that is, non -contagious patients.However, the sick person removes parasitic eggs in their stools, they enter the water and then into the fish.
Trichinosis
Trichinella is a small worm living in the muscles of pigs and wild animals.A person becomes infected if he or she eats immature or immature meat.Trichinella from the intestines enters the muscles and forms capsules there.It is an extraintestinal parasite that can stay in the muscles for decades without causing any symptoms.One cannot infect others.
Ascariasis
The circular is a long worm that lives in the intestines.Human infections occur through dirty hands.In the body, round worms through two stages of development.In the intestine, the larvae of the egg, which enters the lungs through the bloodstream.Here they stay for two months, so they are swallowed up and back to the gut.Here round worms develop into adult worms and release eggs in stools.Sick people can infect others if hygiene rules are not followed.
Toxocariasis
Toxocara is a parasite of dogs and other dogs.Toxocara eggs are found on animal fur, and humans are infected through contact with them.After swallowing eggs in the intestines, larvae arise from them, but there is no more worm development.
The larvae is carried with blood to different organs and forms the capsule in it.Like Trichinella, they can live in tissues for years without any symptoms.Patients are not contagious and do not release toxocara eggs into the environment.
Echinococcosis
Echinococci is a parasite that lives in the dog's body.One becomes infected through contact with animals.The echinococcus eggs enter the intestine, where the larvae appear.They are carried through blood to the organs, most often living in the liver.Here they form a cyst - a bubble with a liquid, where there is echinococci.One is not contagious to others and does not release parasitic eggs into the environment.
Giardiasis
Giardia is the simplest microorganism;Infections occur by drinking unlimited water through dirty hands.Giardia parasites live in the small intestine, and most children experience giardiasis.The patient removes giardia in stools and infects others if personal hygiene is not complied with.
Test type for parasites
To identify parasites in the body, you need to take stool or blood tests.Helminths and intestinal giardia can be determined by stool analysis;Blood is an additional method.Extraintestinal parasites are only identified by blood, as they do not remove eggs.
Blood tests for parasites are not 100% accurate.They can be either positive or fake positive.Causes of false outcomes are the body's features, the presence of allergies, joint illnesses, and the ability of helminths itself to disguise themselves.
Some parasitic infections require ultrasound or x-ray.Therefore, if you suspect echinococcosis, you need to do liver ultrasound.If the cyst is found there, donate blood to antibodies to echinococci.
Parasites stay in the kidneys very rarely.These are tropical protozoa schistosomes;They are infected with swimming in the contaminated tropical countries.Parasites in human bladder can be identified using radiography to detect antibodies.
Stool analysis for parasites
This analysis is called stool test for helminth and protozoa eggs.The stool test can identify the following parasites:
- Opisthorchis;
- round worms;
- wide tape;
- Bovine and pork pores;
- Strongyloid;
- Whipworm;
- Giardia.
Fecal analysis for helminths is not very informative, as worms do not secret the eggs all the time, and they are not found in all samples.To get the right results, you need to donate the stool at least three times with 3 days.It is best to check warm stools.
More reliable techniques - this is a study of stools diluted in special fluids.This method is also called stool enrichment analysis.Sometimes the helminth and protozoa eggs are detected in the coprogram - a detailed analysis of stools to diagnose digestive disorders.
Modern research for Giardia is the detection of their antigens in stools using the PCR method.This technique has a reliability of 90-95%.
Scrape
Using the scraping method, only pinworms are identified.This is a small worm living in the colon.At night, female worms crawl and place eggs on the skin around the anus.The disease caused by pinworms is enterobiasis.
Enterobiasis mainly affects young children.A child always tame himself by scratching the skin near the anus and then putting his hand in his mouth.
Tests for pinworms are conducted in the morning without washing children.A piece of adhesive tape is applied to the skin around the anus.It was then glued to the glass slide.Laboratory technicians studied glass under a microscope and found pinworm eggs.
Blood test
General blood tests with the presence of parasites in the body provide indirect signs:
- increased number of eosinophils;
- Increase in ESR.
In the acute stage of the disease, the number of eosinophils increased significantly, exceeding 20%.At a chronic stage, general blood tests have not changed.
Using immunoassay enzymes in the blood for parasites, antibodies to them are detected.This study is ideal for diagnosing helminths and intestinal giardia in the acute stage of the disease, as well as to identify extraintestinal helminths.
Type of blood tests for parasites
Blood tests for parasites are the same in adults and children.In children, this study is more informative, as they are more often sick in the form of acute.In adults, chronic helminthiases dominate, so blood tests often give the wrong results.
Elisa
For diagnosis, immunoassay enzymes for parasites are used.This is the detection of antibodies for helminths and protozoa in the blood.ELISA is the most informative in the acute stage of the disease, when antibodies are actively produced.At the chronic stage, helminths become masked and the body stops producing antibodies against them.Therefore, Elisha gives false negative results.If a person has allergies or autoimmune diseases, he or she will form false antibodies and ELISA results will be false positive.
Blood tests to detect parasites must be confirmed by other examination methods.
On children
Both tests for parasites - blood and stools - will provide information to children.Children suffer mostly from the form of acute parasitosis.Poor examination for worms and protozoa is informative in 90% of cases, ELISA - in 70% of cases.
How and where to get a blood test for parasites
You can undergo examinations at the clinic at your home or in a paid lab.To get references for tests at the clinic, you should contact a general practitioner, pediatric specialist or infectious disease specialist.You can take it anywhere -where the lab is paid.But if there are no health complaints, there is no need to check.Asymptomatic parasitic infections (toxocariasis, trichinosis) do not require treatment.It is only prescribed when symptoms appear.