Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0036572 (seizures)
 80,221 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

In a Mexican village in which Taenia solium infection was known to be endemic, we selected a cluster sample of 368 households (21% of the total) for demographic, environmental, and diagnostic surveys, and medical histories for taeniasis and cysticercosis. Coproparasitologic studies of 1,531 participants revealed infection by Taenia sp. in four (0.3%) individuals; however, 5.8% of the respondents reported a history of having passed tapeworm proglottids in feces. Of 1,552 human serum specimens, 10.8% tested positive in the cysticercosis immunoblot assay. Seropositivity increased with age and reached a maximum in subjects ages 46-55 years. Risk factors associated with seropositivity included a history of passing tapeworm proglottids, frequent consumption of pork, and poor personal and household hygiene (P less than 0.05). A history of seizures was also significantly associated with seropositivity (P less than 0.05); approximately one-third of persons with such histories were seropositive. Of 571 pigs examined by tongue inspection, 23 (4.0%) had cysticerci; infection rates increased with the age of pigs, and were higher in pigs that habitually ran loose or were fed human feces (P less than 0.05). Goodness of fit analysis confirmed that seropositive persons (but not infected pigs) were significantly clustered within households, particularly, in households in which a member reported a history of having passed tapeworm proglottids. The results of this study have identified community behavioral and environmental practices that must be modified to prevent continued transmission of cysticercosis and taeniasis.
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PMID:Prevalence and risk factors for Taenia solium taeniasis and cysticercosis in humans and pigs in a village in Morelos, Mexico. 162 92

Twenty-five patients with cerebral cysticercosis admitted to the Bangkok Hospital for Tropical Diseases from March 1987 to November 1989 were studied. The patients had a mean age of 41 +/- 5 years with a mean body weight of 57 +/- 4 kgs. Male to female ratio was 1.5:1. Eight patients (32%) gave a history of having taeniasis with a mean duration of 3.6 years before having symptoms of cerebral cysticercosis. Six patients (24%) also had subcutaneous cysticercosis with a duration of 20 +/- 8 months. The important clinical symptoms were headache, focal seizure, epilepsy and dementia. Fourteen patients (56%) had headache, 12 patients (48%) had focal seizure and four patients (16%) had a mild degree of dementia. Baseline study included routine blood examination, biochemical tests, cerebrospinal fluid for routine examinations and immunological study. Biopsy of subcutaneous cysts, plain films of soft tissue and computerized tomography of brain. Praziquantel was given orally at a dosage of 45 mg/kg/day in 3 divided doses at 4-5 hour interval for 15 days. Patients who were taking anti-epileptic drugs before were permitted to continue their medications. The evaluation of results of treatment was done a year post treatment, ten patients (40%) were asymptomatic, 12 patients (48%) had much clinical improvement, their epileptic attack was controlled by 1-2 tablets of phenobarbital (1/2 g) at bedtime. Two patients (8%) had mild headache. One patient (4%) was not improved. Those patients with dementia were not improved.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:The treatment of neurocysticercosis with praziquantel. 182 5

Although not a major public health problem, food-borne parasitic zoonoses in the United States are the cause of numerous diseases that occur widely in the population. The most common food-borne parasitic diseases in the United States are trichinosis, toxoplasmosis, taeniasis/cysticercosis, diphyllobothriasis, and anisakiasis. Since 1947, when the US Public Health Service began to record statistics on trichinosis cases in humans, the numbers of reported cases in the United States have declined markedly, from an average of about 400 with 10-15 deaths reported each year in the late 1940s, to an average of 57 per year with three deaths overall in the 5 years 1982-1986. Each year throughout the world, Toxoplasma gondii infects millions of persons, who contract it either by eating raw or poorly cooked meat from infected animals such as hogs or sheep or by ingesting soil contaminated with cat feces. In the United States between 400 and 10,000 infants are born each year with congenital toxoplasmosis. Toxoplasmic encephalitis, marked by dementia and seizures, has become the most commonly recognized cause of central nervous system opportunistic infection in AIDS patients. Intestinal taeniid tapeworm infection acquired in the United States is almost entirely caused by Taenia saginata, the beef tapeworm. Neurocysticercosis, caused by larvae of the pork tapeworm Taenia solium, is diagnosed in hundreds of persons in the United States every year. Nearly all patients are immigrants or travelers from Mexico and other disease-endemic areas. Diphyllobothriasis and anisakiasis both have increased in recent years in association with increasing popularity of raw fish dishes. Adequate prevention and control of food-borne parasitic zoonoses require continued and improved programs to educate consumers, producers and medical practitioners.
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PMID:Current status of food-borne parasitic zoonoses in the United States. 182 40

In most developing countries, 10% of acute neurologic cases are patients with neurocysticercosis (NCC). Determining specific factors associated with contracting NCC will facilitate its diagnosis and prevention. We examined multiple socioeconomic, demographic, environmental, medical, and behavioral characteristics of 946 Peruvian neurologic patients for a correlation with NCC, which was diagnosed by the highly specific and sensitive electroimmunotransfer blot (EITB) or immunoblot assay. Eighteen percent (172 of 932) of serum samples and 28% (101 of 362) of cerebrospinal fluid samples were EITB-positive. The proportion of EITB-positive persons was similar for all socioeconomic levels. Significant factors associated with NCC were: 1) being born outside Lima, 2) having raised pigs, 3) more than 20 years of age, 4) a history of seizures, and 5) a history of taeniasis. Of these factors, raising pigs is the only one that is amenable to intervention, via improvements in animal husbandry.
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PMID:Factors associated with Taenia solium cysticercosis: analysis of nine hundred forty-six Peruvian neurologic patients. Cysticercosis Working Group in Peru (CWG). 787 41

We performed a survey for taeniasis and cysticercosis among persons living in a Mexican village where Taenia solium infection in pigs was known to be enzootic. A standardized questionnaire was administered in all 577 households to obtain medical histories and information on demographic and environmental factors and on risk factors associated with transmission of infection. Serum and/or stool specimens were obtained from 1005 volunteers and examined for cysticercosis antibodies and intestinal parasites. Faecal examination of 828 participants revealed infection by Taenia sp. in 2 (0.2%). Three additional cases of taeniasis were detected in individuals who evacuated proglottids after treatment with praziquantel. Of 1005 human serum specimens, 49 (4.9%) were positive in the cysticercosis immunoblot assay. Seropositivity increased with age and reached a peak in subjects aged 46-55 years (P < 0.05). A history of seizures was significantly associated with seropositivity (P < 0.05); approximately 25% of persons with such histories were seropositive. Histories of headache, dizziness, trembling, blurred vision, and vomiting were also significantly associated with positive immunoblot assays. This study has demonstrated previously undiagnosed morbidity associated with T. solium neurocysticercosis and identified community behavioural and environmental practices that must be modified to prevent continued transmission of cysticercosis and taeniasis.
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PMID:Epidemiological investigation of Taenia solium taeniasis and cysticercosis in a rural village of Michoacan state, Mexico. 815

An epidemiological inquiry of humancysticercosis due to Taenia solium was carried out in Lagamar, Minas Gerais State, Brazil, in 1992. A survey of 1109 houses with 3344 inhabitants was made. The inquiry included 875 (86%) families and the questionnaire was answered by an informer, who was the father in 80% of the cases. One hundred pigsties, sheltering 406 swines in extremely precarious conditions, were found in 100 (11.4%) houses. A history on taeniasis in some member of the family was verified in 300 (34.2%) houses. A history of seizures was referred to by 125 (14.2%) of families. The outset of convulsion in adult age was characterized in 39 (37.8%) families. A history of mental disorder was reported in 53 (6.0%) of houses. Stool examinations were positive for Taenia spp in 24 (1.3%) of samples examined.
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PMID:[The epidemiological aspects of taeniasis-cysticercosis in an endemic area of Lagamar, Minas Gerais]. 866 34

Taenia solium taeniasis and cysticercosis are known to be endemic in Guatemala but no studies had been undertaken in rural communities where transmission was thought to occur. Two adjacent communities, Quesada and El Jocote, in the Department of Jutiapa were selected. The former had considerably better sanitary infrastructure than the latter. The seroprevalence of antibodies detected in humans by immunoblot to T. solium metacestode glycoprotein antigens was 10% and 17% and the prevalence of intestinal taeniasis was 1% and 2.8% in the two villages, respectively. Both of these represented statistically greater rates in El Jocote. Females were significantly more likely to be seropositive than males in the study as a whole. The majority of cases of intestinal taeniasis were due to T. solium. Cases of intestinal taeniasis were significantly more likely to be anti-cysticercus antibody-positive than the general population. Epilepsy was recorded in 2.8% and 2.9% of the populations of Quesada and El Jocote, respectively. Follow-up of this group and a group of asymptomatic individuals by computed tomography scan indicated that individuals with a history of seizures had a higher rate of abnormalities suggestive of neurocysticercosis. Cysts were present in the tongues of 4% of live pigs sampled in Quesada and 14% in El Jocote. In these two communities, which are probably representative of many others in Guatemala, T. solium appeared to be a significant public health problem.
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PMID:Epidemiology of Taenia solium taeniasis and cysticercosis in two rural Guatemalan communities. 884 16

An epidemiological survey was carried out in 3,344 people of an urban town in Lagamar, Minas Gerais, Brazil--during 1992-1993, to evaluate the main risk factors related to taeniasis and cysticercosis. A total number of 875 (78.9%) houses were visited and 1080 (32.3%) subjects were clinically examined. Poor sanitary conditions were positively associated with former history of taeniasis or seizures in households (p < 0.05). It was remarkable the positive relationship between taeniasis and seizures when households were questioned and subjects were clinically evaluated (p < 0.05). The relative risk of seizures was 2.3 between households and 1.7 for individuals clinically examined respectively. The breeding of swine nearby and the chronic carriers of taeniasis are determinant factors in the maintenance of the epidemiological link between taeniasis and cysticercosis in endemic areas.
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PMID:Risk factors associated with taeniasis-cysticercosis in Lagamar, Minas Gerais State, Brazil. 947

Neurocysticercosis is an important public health problem in South-Central American and South Asia. A review of the differences in epidemiological and clinical attributes of cysticercosis and taeniasis in South Central America and India, respectively, is undertaken in the present communication. Intestinal taeniasis is hyperendemic in several American countries. In comparison, the prevalence of Taenia solium infestation is lower in India. The clinical manifestations in several American neurocysticercosis series comprise epilepsy, intracranial hypertension and meningeal-racemose cysticercosis, in roughly equal proportions. An overwhelming majority of the Indian subjects present with seizures. The commonest pathological substrate of the disorder in Indian patients is the solitary parenchymal degenerating cyst. The reasons for the predominance of solitary forms in India, and of multilesional forms in South Central America are discussed. The magnitude of Taenia solium infestation and the frequency of pork consumption in a given population appear to influence the quantum of cyst load in affected individuals.
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PMID:Neurocysticercosos in South-Central America and the Indian subcontinent. A comparative evaluation. 962 48

Neurocysticercosis (NC) remains a major public health problem in developing and some developed countries. Currently, the best procedures for diagnosing NC are neuroimaging studies. Immunoserologic assays, such as enzyme-linked immunoelectrotransfer blot assay (EITB) or enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), detect antibodies against Taenia solium, or cysticercus. Consequently, they are useful in identifying a population at risk of contact with the parasite but do not necessarily indicate a systemic active infection. Most seropositive individuals are asymptomatic. No data from prospective studies concern the proportion of these individuals that will develop seizures or other neurologic symptoms. There is a discrepancy between the results of serologic assays and neuroimaging studies: >50% of those individuals with NC diagnosed by computed tomography (CT) scan test EITB negative. Pathophysiologic classification of NC into active, transitional, and inactive forms permits a good correlation between clinical manifestations and neuroimaging procedures and facilitates medical and surgical management and research. The most frequent clinical manifestations of NC are seizures. We assume that NC is the main cause of symptomatic epilepsy in developing countries; however, no case-control or cohort studies demonstrate this association. Most patients with NC with seizures have a good prognosis; nevertheless, further studies analyzing factors related to recurrence of seizures and possibilities of discontinuation of antiepileptic medications (AEDs) are needed. Regarding treatment of NC with antihelminthic drugs, no controlled clinical trials exist that establish specific indications, definitive doses, and duration of treatment. The most effective approach to taeniasis/cysticercosis infection is prevention. This should be a primary public health focus for developing countries. We critically review the available information regarding the epidemiology and diagnosis of human cysticercosis, the physiopathology and imaging correlation of the parasite in the central nervous system (CNS) of the host, the relation between seizures or epilepsy and NC, and the issues surrounding the treatment and prognosis of NC, including the use of antihelminthic therapy.
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PMID:Cysticercosis and epilepsy: a critical review. 1052 46


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