ABSTRACT

This study included 62 subjects who presented at the Turgut Özal Medical Centre in Malatya. Of these, 32 were infected with the larval stage of Echinococcus granulosus and the remaining 30 were healthy controls. The ratio of males to females was 0.45. Cystic echinococcosis (CE) occurred in all age groups; the youngest case was 12 years and the oldest case was 74 years old. The frequency of hydatid cysts located in liver was (78.1%) followed by lungs (15.7 %) and one in the brain. All patients recovered completely except for one woman (35 years old) in whom multiple cysts (21cysts) were detected in liver and omentum two years after the first operation. In 68.7 % of the cases, the cytokine that was most frequently increased was IL-4. The IL-2 cytokine increased to 46.8% followed by IL-10 (40.6 %). These results suggest that there are different immunoregulatory events and the cytokine response during CE may be in part related to the slight monocytosis observed in CE patients. In conclusion, concurrent Th1 and Th2 cytokine-type profiles were expressed in CE with the predominance of type Th2 cytokines.

Keywords: Cystic echinococcosis, IL-2, IL-4, IL-10