The Importance of Eosinophilia in The Early Diagnosis of Fascioliasis, Toxocariasis and Hydatidosis

Abstract

Helminthiasis, especially in tissue-mediated are the most common cause of persistent eosinophilia. However, these finding neglected and misdiagnosed. This study aims to determine the seroprevalence of fascioliasis, hydatidosis, and toxocariasis in eosinophilic patients and to demonstrate diagnostic criteria of eosinophilia in the early diagnosis of the three parasitic diseases. The study was conducted between March 2015 and June 2016 at the Parasitology Laboratory of Dursun Odabaş Medical Center at Yuzuncu Yil University, Van, Turkey. The eosinophilic group included 270 cases and the control group included 100 non eosinophilic cases. Blood samples from both eosinophilic cases and the control cases were analyzed by ELISA method. The eosinophilic group were determined 11.5% seropositive for fascioliasis, 7% for hydatidosis and 15.2% were seropositive for toxocariasis. The control group seropositivity was determined as 4% for fascioliasis, 5% for hydatidosis and 7% for toxocariasis. All of the cases, who were identified as seropositive, were found positive for only one of these diseases. Significant differences were determined between eosinophilia and Fasciola hepatica (p<0.05) and Toxocara sp. (p<0.05) seropositivity. No significant difference was determined for the frequency of parasite prevalence among these three groups of cases between age groups (except for cases with positive hydatidosis (p<0.05)) and gender. As a result, it is concluded that evaluating the eosinophilic cases serologically for fascioliasis and toxocariasis could be useful for definitive diagnosis.

Keywords: Eosinophilia, Fascioliasis, Hydatidosis, Toxocariasis

DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/78-01