September, 2003

Case 115:
A female patient who received kidney and pancreas transplants from a cadaveric donor returned to the hospital with febrile illness six and a half weeks after the surgery.  Recent travel outside of the US was not reported.  A peripheral blood smear was prepared, stained with Giemsa, and examined.  The organism in Figure A was observed on the smear.  What is your diagnosis?  Based on what criteria?

A

Click here for the answer to Case 115.

Case 116:
An HIV positive, middle-aged man with severe weight loss was being managed at a local hospital.  The attending physician requested that the patient be tested for microsporidia and that a routine ova and parasites (O & P) examination be performed.  The lab prepared a fecal smear from a specimen preserved with 10% formalin and stained the smear using the Chromotrope 2R staining method.  Figure A shows what was observed at 1000× magnification.  What is your diagnosis?  Based on what criteria?

A

Click here for the answer to Case 116.

Images presented in the monthly case studies are from specimens submitted for diagnosis or archiving.  On rare occasions, clinical histories given may be partly fictitious.