Possible Strongyloides stercoralis infection diagnosed by videocapsule endoscopy in an immunocompetent patient with devastating diarrhea
(EN)
Bamias, Georgios
Vlachogiannakos, Janis
Ladas, Spiros D.
Xouris, Dimitrios
Karamanolis, George
Papaxoinis, Kostis
Vafiadis-Zoumbulis, Irene
Strongyloides stercoralis is an endemic parasitic infection of tropical areas, but it is rare in Europe.Most infected immunocompetent patients are asymptomatic, but may present with abdominalpain and diarrhea even several years after acquiring the infection. However, in immunocompromized patients, hyperinfection syndrome has a high mortality rate. Risk factors for the hyperinfection syndrome are corticosteroids and infection with human T lymphotropic virustype 1. Diagnosis of strongyloidiasis is usually made by identifying the larvae in the stool or induodenal biopsies. There are only four published cases of strongyloidiasis in Greek patients,three of them were immunocompromized. In our patient videocapsule endoscopy identifiedrhabditiform larvae suggestive of strongyloidiasis. This case report illustrates the difficulty inestablishing a diagnosis of the disease in immunocompetent patients.Keywords Strongyloides stercoralis, small bowel videocapsule endoscopy, strongyloidiasis,helminthic infections, diarrhea, human T lymphotropic virus type 1Ann Gastroenterol 2012; 25 (3): 268-270
(EN)
