RELATION BETWEEN TRICHOMONAS TENAX AND PULMONARY DISEASES
Hassan, H.A. Hamadto1, Ibrahim, A.H. El Hayawan1, Karim, F. Abdallah2, Amina, I. Abd El-Maboud1, Osama, I. Mohammed3, Ghada, H. E. Omar1
1Parasitology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Benha University, Egypt.
2Parasitology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Taif University, Saudi Arabia
3Chest Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, Benha University, Egypt
This work aimed to study the relation between oral infection caused by Trichomonas tenax and chronic pulmonary diseases. The study was carried out on 120 individuals; 50 immunocompromised patients with chest complaints (group I) , 50 patients with chronic pulmonary diseases (group II) and 20 apparentally healthy individuals as controls attending Outpatient Dentistry Clinics of Benha Teaching Hospital (group III). Subgingival plaques and / or calculi samples were obtained from all patients of this study. Sputum, pleural effusion fluid or bronchoalveolar fluid were taken from pulmonary patients. All samples were subjected to microscopic examination with direct wet smear method using saline, iodine, eosine and methylene blue, staining with Geimsa stain and Culture on TYI-S-33 media. The results showed that, out of 120 cases 23(19.2%) were positive for T. tenax by Culture on TYI-S-33 media. Wet mount preparation detected 8 (6.7%) and Giemsa-stained smear detected 5 (4.7%). The results showed that the prevalence of T.tenax was more in males than females (69.6% versus 30.4%),and in the age group 31-40 years (47.8%)then the age group51-60 and patients above 60 years had the lowest frequency (8.7%) ,also showed that 65% of infected patients were immunocompromised and 35% were immunocomptent. The frequency of T.tenax was found to be closely associated with the presence of heavy layer of dental calculi and plaques as 13% of infected patients had dental calculi, 60.9% had dental plaques, and 26.1% had both dental plaques and calculi. Also there was an association between teeth cleaning habits and occurrence of T.tenax infection, as 34.8% use tooth paste and brush, while 65.2% do not use tooth paste and brush. Regarding the relation between smoking and T.tenax infection; 56.5% of infected patients were smokers, while 43.5% were non-smokers Concerning the relation between pulmonary trichomoniasis and immunity, T. tenax was detected in 2(5%) sputum samples by both Giemsa stain and diamond culture, one of them was immunocompromised, and the other was immunocomptent , the two positive pulmonary cases were negative for oral trichomoniasis It was concluded that that Trichomonas tenax was found with high prevalence in oral cavity than in respiratory secretions, this indicating the need of more sensitive diagnostic methods as PCR for Trichomonad identification and species differentiation.
December 2014