in Alcoholic Patients: Implications of Alcohol Intake in the Frequency of Infection and Parasite Load.

infection in immunocompromised subjects, including chronic alcoholics, can lead to a severe disease. Moreover, its prevalence in alcoholic patients seems to be higher than that in the general population. The aims of this study were to evaluate the frequency of infection in alcoholic patients and to investigate the influence of alcohol intake on the parasite load, as well as to evaluate the sensitivity of three different parasitological methods according to the larval output.

Infection in Alcoholic Patients.

The course of infection is usually asymptomatic with a low discharge of rhabditoid larva in feces. However, the deleterious effects of alcohol consumption seem to enhance the susceptibility to infection, as shown by a fivefold higher strongyloidiasis frequency in alcoholics than in nonalcoholics. Moreover, the association between infection and alcoholism presents a risk for hyperinfection and severe strongyloidiasis.

Association between Strongyloides stercoralis infection and cortisol secretion in alcoholic patients.

A higher prevalence of Strongyloides stercoralis infections has been reported in alcoholic patients compared to nonalcoholic patients living in the same area. Excessive alcohol consumption increases the levels of endogenous corticosteroids that subsequently enhance the fecundity of S. stercoralis parthenogenetic females.

The role of glycosylated epitopes in the serodiagnosis of Strongyloides stercoralis infection.

Carbohydrates of pathogen antigens have been disrupted by periodate oxidation, in order to reduce nonspecific bindings and improve serodiagnosis of parasite infections. In the present study, the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was carried out with filariform larvae antigen treated, or not treated, with sodium metaperiodate. Groups of sera from patients with Strongyloides stercoralis infection, with other intestinal parasites and a normal control, were used.

Efficacy of parasitological methods for the diagnosis of Strongyloides stercoralis and hookworm in faecal specimens.

To compare the efficacy of stool examination for the detection of Strongyloides stercoralis and hookworm, a total of 634 stool samples from the routine laboratory service of the Pharmacia Faculty, Federal University of Bahia, Brazil, were examined by agar plate culture (APC), Baermann-Moraes and spontaneous sedimentation. The sensitivity of agar plate culture, calculated by combining results of all 3 methods, was 95% for S. stercoralis and 77.