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Query: UMLS:C0017536 (giardiasis)
 1,714 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Giardiasis is a common infection, and many of its symptoms are similar to those of Crohn's disease. Despite a long discussion on the role of microbiologic agents in Crohn's disease, giardiasis has never been investigated. We studied giardiasis as assessed by the occurrence of cysts in 86 patients with Crohn's disease, in 82 patients with other gastrointestinal disease, and in 52 patients without gastrointestinal disease. In addition, in 20 patients with Crohn's disease the effects of metronidazole on giardiasis and disease activity were studied. Frequency of giardiasis was 61.6% in patients with Crohn's disease, 31.7% in patients with other gastrointestinal disease, and 5.8% in the control group (p less than 0.01). Stool frequency, disease activity, and humoral signs of inflammation in patients with Crohn's disease showed no relationship to giardiasis. All but two patients treated with metronidazole became free of cysts. Crohn's disease activity index decreased in 14 of 20 patients (p less than 0.05). In conclusion, giardiasis is a common finding in patients with Crohn's disease. Treatment of giardiasis can, in individual cases of Crohn's disease, result in a quick recovery from symptoms of high disease activity.
Scand J Gastroenterol 1988 Sep
PMID:Crohn's disease is frequently complicated by giardiasis. 322 99

10,000 faeces samples-from 9,120 adults and 880 children were examined to evaluate the faecal excretions. Giardia intestinalis was identified in 111 of those samples (84 adults and 27 children). A higher infection rate of G. Intestinalis was observed in child and male adult groups. Nitrogen excretion was evaluated and compared with fat excretion for the first time in the case of giardiasis. When malabsorption was obvious, both fat and nitrogen increased with generally moderate values. The malabsorption was much more frequent among children (88.9%) than among adults (26%) (p less than 0.001). These results could explain the fast settlement and the frequency of growth troubles in childhood. Giardiasis should be systematically and carefully investigated in a malabsorption in the person of a child.
Pathol Biol (Paris) 1986 Sep
PMID:[Giardia intestinalis: comparative study of lipid and nitrogen fecal excretions in adults and children with parasites]. 353 27

We observed unexplained treatment failures in 13 patients with serious infections and apparent incidental giardiasis. Antibiotic concentrations were assayed in the serum from patients before initiating anti-Giardia therapy and again 2 to 3 weeks after therapy. The peak serum concentrations of antibiotics were higher after treatment for giardiasis. The rat model of giardiasis was used to examine the hypothesis that oral antibiotics are malabsorbed during Giardia lamblia infection. Twenty-eight-day-old Sprague-Dawley rats were fed amoxicillin (50 mg/kg/dose), ampicillin (50 mg/kg/dose), cefaclor (50 mg/kg/dose), cephalexin (50 mg/kg/dose), erythromycin (50 mg/kg/dose), penicillin V (50 mg/kg/dose) or sulfamethoxazole (20 mg/kg/dose) and sera were assayed for antibiotics at 1, 2, 4, 6 and 12 hours after therapy. The same rats were fed 10(5) G. lamblia cysts on 4 consecutive days. On Day 7 of infection the rats were fed the same antibiotic and sera were assayed for antibiotics at 1, 2, 4, 6 and 12 hours after therapy. The mean peak serum concentrations for all drugs except sulfamethoxazole were significantly higher in the rats before infection with G. lamblia. These data suggest that oral antibiotic therapy maybe compromised by decreased absorption in the presence of giardiasis.
Pediatr Infect Dis J 1987 Sep
PMID:Malabsorption of oral antibiotics in humans and rats with giardiasis. 367 Sep 51

An outbreak of giardiasis was investigated in one urban day care center; another day care center was selected as a control. In the study day care center, 35 per cent of the children were infected. Infection was spread to at least one household contact of 47 per cent of the infected children. The data suggest person-to-person transmission of giardiasis and the need for measures to prevent its dissemination. Early recognition and treatment of Giardia lamblia infections in children may be indicated.
Am J Public Health 1986 Sep
PMID:Transmission of Giardia lamblia from a day care center to the community. 374 Mar 41

To study the etiology of chronic childhood diarrhea among Nigerian children, 142 patients, aged 6 months to 5 years, with diarrhea for at least 1 month, were evaluated; the study took place during January-December 1983 at the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Zaria, Northern Nigeria. Enteropathogenic agents were identified in stools of 90 (63%) patients. Giardia lamblia and Entamoeba histolytica were most commonly detected, representing 41% and 23%, respectively, of all parasitic pathogens. In children with negative stool microscopy, chronic diarrhea was associated with primary lactose intolerance (2 cases), abdominal tuberculosis (2 cases), hyponatremia, low serum albumin, anemia due to sickle cell disease, or Staphylococcus aureus infection. In contrast with chronic diarrhea etiologies reported among children in Europe and North America, infections were the major cause of chronic childhood diarrhea among these children. In general, it is accepted that intestinal infection usually produces acute diarrhea--and that, if the host fails to mount a competent immune response, if there is repeated exposure to infectious agents, or if severe infection damages a substantial proportion of absorptive cells, then severe, protracted diarrhea may result. The high case fatality rate of 9% in this series was associated with specific infectious complications of septicemia, bronchopneumonia, lobar pneumonia and measles. Severe malnutrition also worsened the prognosis in chronic diarrhea. The results indicate that early detection and treatment of amebiasis and giardiasis is a useful approach in the treatment of chronic diarrhea cases among children.
J Diarrhoeal Dis Res 1985 Sep
PMID:Chronic diarrhoea in Nigerian children. 383 11

The intestinal parasite Giardia lamblia is a significant cause of diarrheal disease, which is perpetuated by the infective cyst form of the parasite. Although a rational approach to the control of giardiasis would be to inhibit cyst formation, nothing is known of the chemical composition of the cyst wall or of its biosynthesis. In these studies, we have shown that chitin is a major structural component of G. lamblia and G. muris cyst walls. This conclusion is based on the finding that chitinase specifically destroys the cyst wall, as revealed by electron microscopy. The presence of chitin was also shown directly by lectin binding studies. Of 12 lectins with diverse carbohydrate recognition specificity, only the N-acetylglucosamine-specific lectins wheat germ agglutinin, succinylated wheat germ agglutinin, and tomato lectin bound to cyst walls, as shown by fluorescence microscopy and cytochemistry. Wheat germ agglutinin binding was completely abolished by treatment of the cysts with purified chitinase. This effect was specific since it could be prevented by incubating the enzyme with chitin before treatment of the cysts. Treatment of cysts with N-acetyl-beta-glucosaminidase partially inhibited wheat germ agglutinin binding, whereas other glycosidases and proteases had no effect. These findings indicate that chitin is a major structural component of Giardia cyst walls and raise the possibility that inhibitors of chitin synthesis may be of use in preventing encystation and thus controlling spread of the disease.
Infect Immun 1985 Sep
PMID:Identification of chitin as a structural component of Giardia cysts. 403 95

The role drug resistance plays in the occurrence of chronic and recurrent giardiasis has not been established. Extensive data on the susceptibility to antimicrobial agents of living Giardia spp. trophozoites from human origin are lacking. We have determined with a macrodilution method in semisolid medium the in vitro susceptibility of 25 Giardia lamblia isolates, all obtained by routine cultivation of the duodenal fluid of children to six commonly used antiprotozoal drugs. The results showed tinidazole to be the most active drug (all isolates have MICs of less than or equal to 0.5 micrograms/ml). Metronidazole was equally active on all but one isolate, for which an MIC between 0.5 and 1 micrograms/ml was found. Furazolidone was the most active nonimidazole compound tested. More than 50% of the isolates were very susceptible to paromomycin, pyrimethamine, and chloroquine. Two of the strains presented an MIC for paromomycin higher than 10 micrograms/ml, and six strains needed more than 50 micrograms of pyrimethamine per ml to be inhibited. Decreased susceptibility of several of the isolates to different agents appears to be linked.
Antimicrob Agents Chemother 1985 Sep
PMID:In vitro susceptibilities of 25 Giardia lamblia isolates of human origin to six commonly used antiprotozoal agents. 407 61

Fifty-five Thai patients with chronic diarrhoea were prospectively studied to find out the underlying causes. The aetiology was identified in 38.2%, uncertain in 29.1%, and unknown in 32.7% of the patients. In the group with a definitive aetiologic diagnosis, parasitic and infective causes were commoner than non-infective causes. Amoebiasis and giardiasis were more frequent than expected, such that empirical therapeutic trial with an antiprotozoal may be justified if initial routine investigations fail to uncover the cause of the diarrhoea. No significant clinical features were noted between the infective and the non-infective groups. Overall, repeated stool microscopy using the concentration technique was the most useful single investigation in approaching the chronic diarrhoea problem.
Southeast Asian J Trop Med Public Health 1985 Sep
PMID:Chronic diarrhoea: a prospective study in Thai patients at Chulalongkorn University Hospital, Bangkok. 409 10

Ten pediatric patients investigated for chronic diarrhea, chronic weight loss, or failure to thrive were found on intestinal biopsy and/or in a duodenal aspirate to have Giardia lamblia. Serum immunoglobulin levels were normal or elevated in all patients. Three children had increased excretion of fecal fat and three other children had low D-xylose absorption. Jejunal biopsy specimens showed two severe, three moderate, and two mild morphological abnormalities, and three were normal. Except for lactase deficiency, disaccharidase activities correlated poorly with the severity of mucosal damage on biopsy. Steatorrhea was seen only with the more normal biopsies. Immunofluorescent staining of the biopsies for IgG, IgM, IgA, and secretory piece revealed no immune defects. Thus, there was no single malabsorption defect associated with giardiasis, and the specific defects did not necessarily correlate with morphological changes.
Isr J Med Sci 1983 Sep
PMID:Giardiasis in childhood: poor clinical and histological correlations. 635 23

Aldolase activity with the two substrates fructose-1-phosphate and fructose-1,6-diphosphate was measured in the homogenate of small intestinal biopsy specimens from children with different malabsorptive diseases (celiac disease, cow's milk protein intolerance, infectious diarrhea, giardiasis, and Crohn's disease) and controls. It is demonstrated that the ratio of fructose-1,6-diphosphate/fructose-1-phosphate activity, which reflects the relative amounts of the crypt enzyme aldolase A (EC 4.1.2.13) and the villous enzyme aldolase B (EC 4.1.2.7), correlates very well with both the ratio of crypt to villous height (correlation factor r = 0.92) and the mitotic index (r = 0.80).
J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr 1984 Sep
PMID:Biochemical quantification of crypt hyperplastic villous atrophy by aldolase activity assay. 648 61


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