Author/Editor     Rakuša, Martin
Title     Humana cisticerkoza v Sloveniji
Type     monografija
Place     Ljubljana
Publisher     Medicinska fakulteta
Publication year     2000
Volume     str. 43
Language     slo
Abstract     Cysticercosis is a systemic disease caused by larvae of pork tapeworm, Taenia solium. This parasite can be found all over the world. Most infected patients are from the Third world countries. Due to emmigrants from endemic regions, cysticercosis also appears in developed countries. When a person ingests pork tapeworm eggs, these will develop into larvae in the small intestine and larvae can later travel to any location of the body. Most frequently they locate themselves in the brain, muscles or eyes, where they develop into cysticerci. Infection with Taenia solium can be proven with the use of serologic tests, biopsy of the cyst, with computer tomography or magnetic resonance. The most frequent clinical sign of the disease is epilepsy. The disease can present itself with headache, perifer neuropathy, meningeal signs and sight distortions. We treat cysticercosis with albendazol or prazikvantel. Patients with fast progressing hydrocephalus and those with eye cysticercosis are treated surgically. With this research we tried to determine how frequent is cysticercosis in Slovenia, in which parts of the country it occurs and at what age and with which sex it is more frequent. We were also interested in finding out whether there is a connection between the frequency of swine and human cysticercosis. Using the ELISA test, we examined 372 serums of patients with suspicion of cysticercosis between January 1991 and September 2000. Positive values for cysticercosis antibodies were found in 13 of 372 serums. For 5 of these 13 it turned out to a be false positive result, for 3 of 13 we did not receive disease description and were therefore unable to confirm cysticercosis Active neurocysticerrcosis was determined in 5 patients, 2 females and 3 males. One of them also had epilepsy. (Abstract trunacted at 2000 characters).
Descriptors     CYSTICERCOSIS
CYSTICERCUS
ANTIBODIES, HELMINTH
ENZYME-LINKED IMMUNOSORBENT ASSAY
ALBENDAZOLE
AGE FACTORS
SEX FACTORS
SLOVENIA