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Query: UMLS:C0851341 (infestation)
 10,121 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Strongyloidiasis is a tenacious soil-transmitted nematode infestation endemic in the south-eastern United States. Thirty-three cases were diagnosed in a series of 1,290 stool examinations in 971 patients at Veterans Administration Medical Center, Mountain Home, Tennessee. Most patients had a concurrent major illness, such as chronic lung disease, serious bacterial infection, or cancer. A minority presented with gastrointestinal symptoms alone. Skin rash was uncommon. Eosinophilia, IgE elevation, and skin anergy were common. Atypical presentations included severe proctitis, colitis, and exacerbation of inflammatory bowel disease. In a patient with the hyperinfection syndrome, the diagnosis was made only at autopsy. Since strongyloidiasis seems to present like an opportunistic illness, all physicians, not just those in endemic areas, should consider its presence in the appropriate setting.
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PMID:Strongyloidiasis. When to suspect the wily nematode. 660 65

Controversy surrounds studies of the incidence and clinical importance of atopic disease in tropical populations. This could be due in part to the methods of evaluation employed. The value of some of the tests commonly used in the diagnosis of atopic disease was therefore examined in a tropical situation. Extracts of environmental allergens are usually obtained from suppliers located in more temperate regions of the world, and skin tests, the radio-allergosorbant test (RAST) and RAST-inhibition demonstrate that these can lack important tropical allergens. In addition, although some local extracts are used in clinical practice, these have great variability in their protein content, allergenicity and toxicity. In the tropical environment serum IgE levels can have a greater relation to intestinal helminthic infestation than to atopic disease, even after anti-parasitic treatment, and thus the definition of "normal" IgE values must take into account the socio-economic status of the groups examined. The helminth-induced elevation of total serum IgE levels can also cause false-positive RAST results.
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PMID:Diagnosis of atopic conditions in the tropics. 663 18

This report describes a 73-year-old male with early gastric cancer (type IIc) superimposed on infestation of a parasitic larva. Eosinophilic granulomas surrounding a dead worm were seen in the submucosa just beneath the intramucosal tubular adenocarcinomatous lesion measuring 1 X 1cm at the anterior wall in the acid-secreting area. The cancer cells showed lowered and altered mucin production in comparison with the surrounding non-cancerous fundic mucosa. The parasite was identified as an Anisakis-like larva by the presence of typical lateral chords. An immunohistochemical examination revealed that the cancer cells were more strongly positive for IgA and secretory component than the surrounding non-cancerous mucosa, and that IgG, IgA and IgM were detected in plasma cells around the granulomas but IgE and IgD were not. The possibility that the Anisakis-like larva preferentially infested the cancerous mucosa because of the change in mucin, local defect in acid secretion and/or other structural alterations in the area is discussed.
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PMID:Early gastric cancer superimposed on infestation of an Anisakis-like larva: a case report. 668 94

The main patient series consisted of 415 Egyptians attending the Cairo Cancer Institute and comprising 286 bladder cancer, 97 breast cancer, 14 head and neck cancer and 18 gastrointestinal cancer cases. Also included in the study were 36 patients with active schistosomiasis and 89 health controls. Serum IgA, IgG, IgG subclasses, IgE, Schistosoma and Ascaris-specific IgE (RAST) and the acute-phase protein CRP were measured in all, or sub-sets, of the main patient group. The well-established increase in IgE and IgG levels, and the more recently reported increase in the levels of IgG3 and IgG4 subclasses in patients with schistosomiasis, were also found in bilharzial bladder cancer, indicating that humoral immunity persists in cancer-bearing patients. However, the plasma protein profile in bilharzial bladder cancer is further modified by significant increases in the levels of IgA, IgG, IgG1, IgG2 and CRP when compared to levels in patients with Bilharzia in the absence of neoplastic change. Patients with cancers not associated with parasitic infestation also had significant increases in their serum levels of IgG1, IgG2, IgG, IgE and CRP when compared to healthy Egyptian controls, but 41% of these non-bladder cancer patients showed IgE responses to previous parasitic infestations suggesting that any immunological response to cancer would be on the background of a variable non-specific increase of IgE.
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PMID:Immunoglobulin A, G and E levels in Egyptians with cancer: influence of schistosomiasis. 673 23

Toxocara canis is nematode parasite of dogs. Children are particularly subject to infestation, however the larva remains quiescent at stage II. Toxocara can localize in the eye and induce a variety of clinical manifestations. A case of ocular toxocara is presented in which there was granulomatous endophthalmitis. Immunologic testing was negative in the serum but positive in the vitreous, where numerous eosinophils and plasma cells where found. Vitreous and aqueous IgE levels were elevated. Corticosteroid therapy was ineffective in quieting the inflammation, but vitrectomy was beneficial. Biological testing demonstrated the advantages of using specific antigens with ELISA techniques. Negative test results in the serum do not obviate the need to perform assays of the aqueous and/or vitreous. The demonstration of an eosinophilic inflammatory response and elevated IgE levels support the diagnosis of ocular parasite infection. In the absence of specific anti-parasite therapy corticosteroid treatment appears to yield inconsistent results. Vitrectomy seems to be beneficial in these circumstances. The new diagnostic technique should improve the accuracy of ocular toxocara diagnoses.
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PMID:[Ocular toxocariasis. Diagnostic and therapeutic attainments]. 674 14

Allergy to castor bean was diagnosed in thirty-nine dockworkers from Port Sudan, on the basis of rhinitis and/or asthma provoked by castor bean dust, together with a positive prick test to a high dilution of castor bean extract. These were compared to twelve non-allergic dockworkers from Port Sudan and forty-three other Port Sudan residents. The castor bean allergic group had significantly higher IgE levels (mean 902 iu/ml) than the non-allergic dock workers (mean 245 iu/ml) or the Port Sudan residents (mean 404 iu/ml) P less than 0.01. IgE antibody to castor bean was detected in all the castor bean-allergic group, and also in 25-35% of the Port Sudan resident group, but at a much lower level. No evidence was found to support the view that parasitic infestation (evidenced by IgE antibodies to Ascaris lumbricoides) prevented sensitization to castor bean or any other allergen. There was a higher incidence of IgE antibodies to Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus in the castor bean-allergic dockworkers (18/36) than in the non-allergic Port Sudan residents (5/43), although we were unable to show that sensitivity to other inhalant allergens pre-disposed to castor bean allergy.
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PMID:Allergy to castor bean in the Sudan: measurement of serum IgE and specific IgE antibodies. 697 40

Synthesis of specific homocytotropic antibody by cells from various lymphoid and haemopoietic organs in rats infested with Nippostrongylus brasiliensis has been studied by use of homologous adoptive cutaneous anaphylaxis and compared with the kinetics of appearance in the serum and thoracic duct lymph of specific IgE antibodies. Using this technique, synthesis of specific mast cell-sensitizing antibody has been detected in the draining lymph nodes of the lung as early as 12 days after infestation and by 14 days in the draining lymph nodes of the small intestine. Specific IgE antibody was not detected in serum until between 16 and 18 days after infestation. The delay in detection of antibody in the serum is at least in part due to its rapid removal from the blood, because antibody en route to the bloodstream from the gut-associated lymphoid tissue was detected in the thoracic duct lymph plasma as early as day 12. A major traffic of homocytotropic antibody-secreting cells has been detected in the thoracic duct lymph of the infested rats. The results are discussed in terms of the possible role of immediate hypersensitivity in the expulsion of the parasite, the origin of the IgE antibody response to the parasite and the mechanism of the potentiated reagin response.
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PMID:The distribution and traffic of specific homocytotropic antibody-synthesizing cells in Nippostrongylus brasiliensis-infested rats. Comparison of synthesis with the kinetics of antibody and IgE levels in serum and lymph. 697 8

Comparisons were drawn between the effects of Nippostrongylus brasiliensis infestation upon IgE synthesis and the in vivo expression of allergic reactions to ovalbumin (OV) in weanling, juvenile and adult rats. Parameters examined included total and antigen (OV)-specific IgE levels in serum and the relationship between serum levels of antigen-specific IgE in individual parasitized rats and the magnitude of their subsequent reactions to intravenous or intradermal antigenic challenge. On the basis of parallel trials employing non-infested age-matched controls, parasitized adult and juvenile animals manifested allergic reactivity to the full potential of their individual specific antibody levels. In contrast, the magnitude of allergic reactions in parasitized weanlings was markedly depressed below that expected from their IgE antibody scores. The most notable additional feature distinguishing parasitized weanling rats from infested animals of other ages was the presence in their serum of extremely high levels of 'irrelevant' IgE.
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PMID:Host age determines the effects of helminthic parasite infestation upon expression of allergic reactivity in rats. 711 19

Two schools in rural Tanzania were surveyed regarding the pupils' nutrition (weight and height), serum immunoglobulins (IgA, IgG, IgM, and IgE), autoantibodies, malaria antibodies, hepatitis B antigenemia, and fecal and urinary parasites. The survey attempted to quantify the relative importance of undernutrition and parasitic infestation in determining the serological abnormalities found. Of all the children surveyed 69% were undernourished (less than 80% of expected weight for age); 63% had fecal parasites and 38% had urinary schistosomiasis. Serum IgG and IgM concentrations were raised and the serum IgE concentration was strikingly raised (mean 4990IU/ml). Elevated serum IgE was associated with ascariasis. Autoantibodies were common but no autoimmune disease was detected. Notably there was a 35% prevalence of reticulin antibody. This reticulin antibody positivity correlated with increased malaria antibody concentrations. Reduced malaria antibody concentration was significantly associated with hepatitis B antigenemia. The study illustrates that parasites, notably malaria, are important determinants of the serum antibodies of children in the tropics and suggests that mild undernutrition has little effect.
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PMID:Nutritional status, globulin titers, and parasitic infections of two populations of Tanzanian school children. 725 20

The capacity of N. brasiliensis (Nb) infestation to modify synthesis of ovalbumin (OV) specific IgE antibody was monitored in weanling, juvenile and adult female WAG rats by both passive cutaneous anaphylaxis (PCA) activity and by a rat radio-allergosorbent test (RAST). Infestation with Nb larvae 10 days after immunization with OV produced marginal potentiation of anti-OV Ig antibody production by both RAST and PCA in weanlings, marginal suppression by both parameters in juveniles and was without effect in adults. However, immunization with OV after infestation with Nb partially suppressed anti-OV IgE antibody production in weanlings (RAST) and totally abolished the PCA activity. Although this regime did not impair anti-OV IgE antibody synthesis (RAST) in juveniles, the sera were PCA-negative. In contrast, normal responses were found in adult rats. Negative PCA titres in sera containing high levels of specific antibody occurred when serum total IgE levels were elevated, and are explained on the basis of competition for binding sites on mast cells. The ratio of OV-specific IgE to 'total' IgE is a critical factor in detecting PCA activity.
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PMID:Age-dependent modulation of serum IgE and mast cell sensitization by Nippostrongylus brasiliensis infestation in rats. 729 22


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