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Prevalence and Associated Factors of Blastocystis sp. Infection in Patients with Gastrointestinal Symptoms in Spain: A Case-Control Study

Blastocystis sp. is known to be the most prevalent parasite in fecal samples of humans worldwide. In the present report, a case–control study (1:9.89 (≈10)) was performed, by analyzing data from 3682 patients who attended a public hospital in the northern area of Spain showing gastrointestinal sympt...

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Autores principales: Matovelle, Cristina, Tejedor, María Teresa, Monteagudo, Luis Vicente, Beltrán, Antonio, Quílez, Joaquín
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9503631/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36136637
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/tropicalmed7090226
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author Matovelle, Cristina
Tejedor, María Teresa
Monteagudo, Luis Vicente
Beltrán, Antonio
Quílez, Joaquín
author_facet Matovelle, Cristina
Tejedor, María Teresa
Monteagudo, Luis Vicente
Beltrán, Antonio
Quílez, Joaquín
author_sort Matovelle, Cristina
collection PubMed
description Blastocystis sp. is known to be the most prevalent parasite in fecal samples of humans worldwide. In the present report, a case–control study (1:9.89 (≈10)) was performed, by analyzing data from 3682 patients who attended a public hospital in the northern area of Spain showing gastrointestinal symptoms. Diagnosis was performed in human fecal samples by means of optical microscopy. The prevalence of Blastocystis sp. in patients with gastrointestinal symptoms was 9.18% (338/3682). Most of the Blastocystis sp.-infected patients tested negative for protozoa and helminths, and were underweight and foreign-born (26.4%), mainly from Africa and Central/South America. Gastrointestinal symptoms, such as abdominal pain, anorexia, halitosis, plus relative eosinophilia, as well as co-infections with pathogenic bacteria were associated with Blastocystis sp. infection. Both type 2 diabetes and treatment with immunosuppressive medicines at the time of Blastocystis sp. detection were associated with a higher proportion of infected patients. This is the first case–control study of Blastocystis sp. in humans in northern Spain and may contribute to surveillance and intervention strategies by public health authorities.
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spelling pubmed-95036312022-09-24 Prevalence and Associated Factors of Blastocystis sp. Infection in Patients with Gastrointestinal Symptoms in Spain: A Case-Control Study Matovelle, Cristina Tejedor, María Teresa Monteagudo, Luis Vicente Beltrán, Antonio Quílez, Joaquín Trop Med Infect Dis Article Blastocystis sp. is known to be the most prevalent parasite in fecal samples of humans worldwide. In the present report, a case–control study (1:9.89 (≈10)) was performed, by analyzing data from 3682 patients who attended a public hospital in the northern area of Spain showing gastrointestinal symptoms. Diagnosis was performed in human fecal samples by means of optical microscopy. The prevalence of Blastocystis sp. in patients with gastrointestinal symptoms was 9.18% (338/3682). Most of the Blastocystis sp.-infected patients tested negative for protozoa and helminths, and were underweight and foreign-born (26.4%), mainly from Africa and Central/South America. Gastrointestinal symptoms, such as abdominal pain, anorexia, halitosis, plus relative eosinophilia, as well as co-infections with pathogenic bacteria were associated with Blastocystis sp. infection. Both type 2 diabetes and treatment with immunosuppressive medicines at the time of Blastocystis sp. detection were associated with a higher proportion of infected patients. This is the first case–control study of Blastocystis sp. in humans in northern Spain and may contribute to surveillance and intervention strategies by public health authorities. MDPI 2022-09-03 /pmc/articles/PMC9503631/ /pubmed/36136637 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/tropicalmed7090226 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Matovelle, Cristina
Tejedor, María Teresa
Monteagudo, Luis Vicente
Beltrán, Antonio
Quílez, Joaquín
Prevalence and Associated Factors of Blastocystis sp. Infection in Patients with Gastrointestinal Symptoms in Spain: A Case-Control Study
title Prevalence and Associated Factors of Blastocystis sp. Infection in Patients with Gastrointestinal Symptoms in Spain: A Case-Control Study
title_full Prevalence and Associated Factors of Blastocystis sp. Infection in Patients with Gastrointestinal Symptoms in Spain: A Case-Control Study
title_fullStr Prevalence and Associated Factors of Blastocystis sp. Infection in Patients with Gastrointestinal Symptoms in Spain: A Case-Control Study
title_full_unstemmed Prevalence and Associated Factors of Blastocystis sp. Infection in Patients with Gastrointestinal Symptoms in Spain: A Case-Control Study
title_short Prevalence and Associated Factors of Blastocystis sp. Infection in Patients with Gastrointestinal Symptoms in Spain: A Case-Control Study
title_sort prevalence and associated factors of blastocystis sp. infection in patients with gastrointestinal symptoms in spain: a case-control study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9503631/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36136637
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/tropicalmed7090226
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