Detection of Five Parasites in Renal Transplantation Patients by Molecular Methods / Renal Transplantasyon Hastalarında Beş Parazitin Moleküler Yöntemler ile Tespiti

Özet

Objective: Intestinal parasitic infections are among the prominent public health concerns inpatients with suppressed immune function.Material and methods: Here we examined stool specimens by microscopy and polymerasechain reaction (PCR) to evaluate the infection of five principal protozoans (Cryptosporidiumspp., Giardia spp., Entamoeba histolytica, Blastocystis spp. and Dientamoeba spp.) among 90renal transplant recipient patients (RTP) in comparison with 90 healthy individuals (HI) fromTurkey.Results: The overall frequency of any parasites was 17.2% (31/180) with microscopy and51.7% (93/180) with PCR. Because of its high sensitivity, PCR was compared with microscopyin terms of the accuracy of detecting intestinal parasites, and the agreement was found to beinadequate (κ= 0.217; p<0.001). Multiparasitism (90.9%), Cryptosporidium spp. (84.6%) andGiardia spp. (74.1%) were the most frequent agents in RTP, respectively (p<0.001).Conclusions: This is the first study performed in Turkish reporting the prevalence of fiveintestinal parasites with PCR techniques among this group and seeks to provide a basis forfuture studies