Sunday, January 27, 2008

Parasite Case of the Week 6

Welcome to the Parasite C.O.W.
Every Monday I will post a new case. Please feel free to leave a comment or your thoughts regarding the diagnosis. Click on the images to enlarge. Enjoy!

The following cyst was found in a section of skeletal muscle and was submitted for hematoxylin and eosin stained-sections after formalin fixation and paraffin embedding.










Image 1 (top) - 100 times original magnification.
Image 2 (bottom) - 400 times original magnification.
Click on images to enlarge.




Questions:
Name of disease caused by this parasite?
Causative agent?
How is this organism acquired?

2 comments:

Heather said...

I'm not 100% certain,(tissue!! Cut-up!!)but I'm gonna go for it, anyway:

1. Cysticercosis
2. Taenia solium
3. Ingestion of undercooked pork

Anonymous said...

I largely agree with Heather, although I too am not at all certain. If it is T. solium, my guess would be that this form of the disease probably results more often from ingestion of eggs via fecally contaminated food. Don't know what the extent autoinfection (i.e. ingestion of infected & undercooked pork - taeniasis - retrograde transit of gravid proglottid - oncosphere mucosal penetration - intermediate host sequalae) may be???