Thiabendazole vs. albendazole in treatment of toxocariasis: a clinical trial.

Between 1986 and 1988, 34 patients (age range six to 83 years) with visceral or ocular larva migrans were randomly assigned to a five-day treatment with thiabendazole 2 x 25 mg kg-1 day-1 (15 patients) or albendazole 2 x 5 mg kg-1 day-1 (19 patients). On the fifth treatment day, six patients (40%) in the thiabendazole group and 11 patients (58%) in the albendazole group showed excellent or good drug tolerability. Efficacy of treatment was assessed after 30 weeks (range six to 56 weeks).

[Which are the most frequently occurring enteropathogenic bacteria in clinical practice?].

Diarrhea is an increasingly frequent clinical finding in Swiss medical practice. One reason is the volume of tourism in countries with different climatic and social circumstances. To obtain an overview of the enteropathogenic bacteria spectrum as a cause of diarrhea, we analyzed 11,163 stool specimens from a representative group of patients throughout Switzerland.

The cross-reactive immune response between infective larvae and adult worms of Acanthocheilonema (Dipetalonema) viteae is dominated by phosphorylcholine.

The immune response of BALB/c mice against living L3 or adult extract of Acanthocheilonema viteae induces three antibody populations, namely antibodies which cross-react between the two forms of A. viteae, and either (i) do, or (ii) do not express specificity for phosphorylcholine (PC), and (iii) antibodies which do not cross-react between the two stages. In the anti-L3 serum, almost all cross-reactive antibodies to adult antigen are PC specific and of the IgM isotype, apart from a minor non-PC-reactive IgE response.

Dipetalonema viteae: phosphorylcholine and non-phosphorylcholine antigenic determinants in infective larvae and adult worms.

The humoral immune response of Balb/c mice to live infective larvae or adult worm extract of Dipetalonema viteae is composed of two antibody populations either with or without specificity for phosphorylcholine. Absorption of immune serum on phosphorylcholine-Sepharose and separation of the antibody population demonstrated that anti-larvae serum contains a larger ratio of phosphorylcholine versus non-phosphorylcholine antibodies as compared to anti-adult serum. Immunofluorescence on crossections of female worms revealed that antigen expressing phosphorylcholine determinants were mainly found on certain internal structures, like egg, uterine, and intestinal membranes, but not on the cuticle.