Fasciola hepatica infection in humans: overcoming problems for the diagnosis

Silvana Carnevale; Jorge Bruno Malandrini; María Laura Pantano; Mirna Sawicki; Claudia Cecilia Soria; Lein Hung Kuo; Laura Kamenetzky; Osvaldo Germán Astudillo; Jorge Néstor Velásquez

doi:10.1515/ap-2016-0107

Article

Fasciola hepatica infection in humans: overcoming problems for the diagnosis

Silvana Carnevale , Jorge Bruno Malandrini , María Laura Pantano , Mirna Sawicki , Claudia Cecilia Soria , Lein Hung Kuo , Laura Kamenetzky , Osvaldo Germán Astudillo and Jorge Néstor Velásquez

Published/Copyright: October 24, 2016

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From the journal Acta Parasitologica Volume 61 Issue 4

Abstract

Fascioliasis is a zoonosis actually considered as a foodborne trematode disease priority by the World Health Organization. Our study presents three cases of F. hepatica infection diagnosed by direct, indirect and/or imaging diagnostic techniques, showing the need of the combined use of them. In order to overcome some difficulties of the presently available methods we show for the first time the application of molecular tools to improve human fascioliasis diagnosis by employing a PCR protocol based on a repetitive element as target sequence. In conclusion, diagnosis of human fascioliasis has to be carried out by the combination of diagnostic techniques that allow the detection of infection in different disease phases, different epidemiological situations and known/new transmission patterns in the actual scenario.

Keywords: Fascioliasis; polymerase chain reaction; enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay

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Received: 2015-11-13

Revised: 2016-5-13

Accepted: 2016-6-27

Published Online: 2016-10-24

Published in Print: 2016-12-1

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https://doi.org/10.1515/ap-2016-0107

Keywords for this article

Fascioliasis; polymerase chain reaction; enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay