ABSTRACT

In this study, patients (outpatients and inpatients) with various gastrointestinal system complaints presenting at various clinics of the Eskisehir Osmangazi University Medical Faculty, from February 2003-December 2007 were investigated for the presence of intestinal parasites. The prevalence of intestinal parasites was evaluated according to parasite species, gender of the patients and the years, in which cases were seen. A total of 34,733 stool samples were prepared by formal-ethyl acetate concentration and examined in saline and iodine preparations microscopically with 10x and 40x magnifications. Also trichrome stained preparations of non-pathogenic amoebas and modified Erlich-Ziehl-Nielsen stained preparations for Cryptosporidium spp were examined by oil-immersion objectives (100x). One or more parasites were found in 1252 of the 34,733 stool samples (including nonpathogenic protozoa).the overall prevalence of intestinal parasitic infection rate was 3.6%, of these patients, 52.5% were female and 47.5% male. Predominant parasites were Entamoeba histolytica/dispar group amoebas (31% (397/1252), followed by Giardia intestinalis 19% (236/1252), Blastocystis hominis 7% (108/1252), and Cryptosporidium parvum %4.5 (56/1252). Since the cellophane type method was only used in a few cases; the rates detected in helminth cases in this study were different from other studies. The ratio of E. vermicularis was found to be 2.3% (29/1252), Taenia saginata 0.8% (10/1252) and Strongyloides stercoralis 0.4% (5/1252). In comparison to a previous 10 year retrospective study which was performed in our hospital, we detected an important decrease in prevalence of parasites. But the presence of intestinal parasites is still an important problem.