Frequency of Blastocystis among Malignant Patients in Comparison with Control Group

Blastocystis is one of the most common intestinal parasites of humans and many animals. It has a worldwide distribution. The probability of clinical manifestation has been increased among Immunocompromised patients such as those receiving chemotherapy or patients with malignancy. However, infection is often asymptomatic or self-limited in healthy individuals. The present study aimed to investigate the frequency of Blastocystis among patients with different kinds of malignancy compared to the control group in Eman Reza hospital.
Methods and Materials: This cross-sectional study has been performed from June 2012 to July 2013. A total 116 stool samples were obtained from hospitalized malignant patients. Moreover, 83 stool samples were collected from patients of hospital laboratory as a control group. The characteristics of stool samples including color and appearances were recorded. Stool samples were examined directly by wet mount preparation using the saline and iodine method. Moreover, samples were examined by formalin-ether concentration. Data were analyzed using Chi-squared test by SPSS version 17.
A total 199 stool samples were collected and examined in both case and control groups. The frequency of Blastocystis spp was 17 (14.7%) in the case group that 14 of these samples (19.2%) were related to cancerous patients and 3 samples of them were those having leukemia. There were statistically significant differences between the frequency of Blastocystis in both groups (p=0.100).
Discussion and Those patients receiving chemotherapy must be screened for infections such as Blastocystis to prevent possible life threatening outcome. Further studies are necessary to distinguish the subtypes of Blastocystis.