Treatment of human disseminated strongyloidiasis with a parenteral veterinary formulation of ivermectin.

There are no parenteral antihelminthic drugs licensed for use in humans. We report the successful treatment of disseminated strongyloidiasis with a parenteral veterinary formulation of ivermectin in a patient presenting with severe malabsorption and paralytic ileus. To our knowledge, ivermectin levels are reported for the first time in this situation.

Cytologic detection of microsporidia spores in bile. A comparison of stains.

Objective: To compare stains in preparations of bile in a patient with AIDS and microsporidial cholangitis.

Study Design: Bile was obtained from a 30-year-old male with AIDS and symptoms of cholangitis. Comparative staining of the specimen was performed using a formalin-fixed preparation stained with Chromotrope 2R stain and with alcohol-fixed preparations stained with Gram and Giemsa stain and Diff-Quik.

Clearance of Pneumocystis carinii cysts in acute P carinii pneumonia: assessment by serial sputum induction.

Study Objectives: To determine the feasibility of repeat sputum induction in acute Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) and to define the rate of clearance of P carinii cysts from the respiratory tract of HIV-seropositive patients with acute PCP.

Design: Prospective cohort evaluation.

Setting: University medical center.

Diversity of host species and strains of Pneumocystis carinii is based on rRNA sequences.

We have amplified by PCR Pneumocystis carinii cytoplasmic small-subunit rRNA (variously referred to as 16S-like or 18S-like rRNA) genes from DNA extracted from bronchoalveolar lavage and induced sputum specimens from patients positive for P. carinii and from infected ferret lung tissue. The amplification products were cloned into pUC18, and individual clones were sequenced.

Polyclonal infections due to Mycobacterium avium complex in patients with AIDS detected by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis of sequential clinical isolates.

Invasive infection with organisms of the Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) is common among patients with advanced human immunodeficiency virus infection. In previous studies, we analyzed multiple individual colonies of MAC isolated from specimens obtained at the same time and observed that 14 to 20% of patients are simultaneously infected with more than one strain. In this study, we examined sequential isolates from 12 patients with AIDS who had two or more MAC isolates available from clinical specimens collected more than 1 week apart; the intervals between the first and last specimens ranged from 8 to 192 (median, 46) days.

Diagnosis of Mycobacterium avium bacteremia by polymerase chain reaction.

We describe a rapid polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based test for diagnosing Mycobacterium avium directly from blood specimens. Blood was collected in anticoagulant (EDTA) from patients who also had blood cultures performed by the lysis-centrifugation method. Blood samples were centrifuged on a Ficoll-Hypaque gradient to purify peripheral blood mononuclear cells.