Parasitology Cases

A number of parasitic diseases in humans are often localized to specific geographic regions but many can be found worldwide. Depending on the type of infection and associated potential parasitic etiologies, it’s incumbent on the parasitology laboratory to have the capabilities of testing a number of different specimen types using a range of diagnostic methods including traditional microscopy and advanced techniques like PCR to detect organism-specific DNA sequences. This chapter reviews the conventional and advanced methods used in the diagnostic parasitology laboratory and provides a number of detailed patient cases in which the laboratory was critical in determining the etiology of infection. Each case includes the clinical presentation, differential diagnosis, relevant laboratory findings, and a discussion pertinent to the pathogen identified and a brief review of other potential etiologies for the clinical syndrome described.