Percutaneous puncture-aspiration-injection-reaspiration (PAIR) of hydatid liver cysts, was performed in 38 patients 14-80 years old, with a total of 60 liver hydatid cysts. After aspiration under computed tomography guidance, hypertonic saline was injected into the cystic cavities of patients as a scolecidal agent. No major complications were associated with the procedures. In the follow-up period of 18 months, control CT scans of 35 cysts revealed a gradual decrease in cyst size with a mean volume reduction of 66%. Complications included two cases of urticaria, one case of anaphylaxis and one subcapsular hematoma. No mortality occurred. It is concluded that percutaneous aspiration and hypertonic saline injection for liver hydatid cysts appears to be an effective form of treatment and may eventually prove to be an alternative to surgical intervention.
In medicine, the importance of mites in house dust gains importance from day to day. The close relation between these arthropods and man is the cause of a series of health problems such as allergic asthma, rhinitis and/or dermatitis. House dust samples were collected between January and December 1991 in Punta Arenas, city, Chile. Samples were processed by the Artigas and Casanueva (1983) technique, modified by Muñoz et al. (1983). The isolated specimens were subsequently identified using the Artigas and Casnueva (1983) pictorial key. Of the 134 samples study, 29.1% presented one or more mite species. A total of 13 species were classified. Eight of them were registered for the city of Punta Arenas for the first time. Average weight of the dust analysed was 8.4 g. Mites were found from 0.2 g. onwards. A total of 1768 specimens was collected. The species more representative were: Blomia tjibodas (30.1%), Glycyphagus destructor (22.5%) and Tyrophagus putrescentiae (10.8%). The seasons that presented the higher proportions of mites were autumn (39.4%) and spring (37.1%).
Echinococcus granulosus is the agent that causes the classical hydatidosis or cystic echinococcosis. The most spread cycle in South America is the sheep-dog cycle, and offers favorable conditions for the development of the parasite. As the province of La Pampa shows an endemic presence with notification of cases and infected dogs, the present work has the aim of contributing to the study of the distribution and prevalence of the disease in the district of Maracó, La Pampa, Argentina. Dogs of 36 farms that had ovines, were dosed with arecoline hydrobromide at a dose of 3.5 mg/kg. Dogs from 27 (75%) farms resulted positive to Tenia sp. and 3 (8.3%) to E. granulosus. Blood samples were taken to all the people living in all the inquired farm and were processed by the ELISA test for hydatidosis. A retrospective survey on cases of human hydatidosis attended in the Hospital of General Pico, head if the sanitary region, and in two private clinics was performed. Analysis of clinical records indicated 11 cases operated during the period 1996/1997 (annual incidence rate of 6.8 per 100,000 inhabitants). It is of public health interest to fulfill epidemiologic investigations in other districts of the Province of La Pampa with the aim of delimitating the endemic distribution within the province and also organizing surveillance systems on human hydatidosis.
From February 1987 to February 1989, the populational biology of Contraceacum sp. (larvae) in its paratenic host, the fish Serrasalmus spilopleura Kner, 1860, was studied in two ponds in a subtropical permanent habitat northeastern of Argentina. Fishes from Ramada Paso pond presented 80% of prevalence and 1 to 132 larvae per fish while fishes from Aeroclub pond presented 63% of prevalence and 1 to 184 larvae per fish. Fishes collected from Aeroclub pond have shown a high prevalence of infection during the first period of study (1987), diminishing the following year. In fishes from Ramada Paso pond the prevalence varied not significatively during the two years. Prevalence and mean intensity of infection increase with body length and weight of the hosts. Sex of hosts is not an influential factor in parasitic level. The lenitic "closed" environmental (Ramada Paso pond) evidenced the greatest larvae mean intensity and prevalence. Although, the lenitic "open" environmental (Aeroclub pond) showed the greatest parasitic number of individuals in an infrapopulation. The spatial dispersion in both ponds were aggregated and fit well a negative binomial model. Nevertheless, the Aeroclub pond presented the greatest overdispersion.
The present status of human ectoparasitoses in Uruguay is analyzed with the main purpose of performing in the future, comparative studies in the region. After classifying ectoparasites in temporary and permanent, comments are made on particular clinical and epidemiological aspects of some of them. For remarking: the high prevalence of pediculosis capitis and scabies; the frequent observation of cutaneous myiasis by Dermatobia hominis with a very interesting modification of the geographical national distribution of the fly and the presence of an endemic area of creeping eruption by Ancylostoma braziliense and A. caninum in the north of the country.