Thomas Dingfelder wrote:
>> Hi everyone !!!
>> Could you send me some information on sarcosporidiae?
>> I would like to know something about the pathogenity ,
> symptoms of an infestation with sarcosporidiae
> and treatment in human medicine.
>> Thanks a lot , Dingi
Sarcosporidiae is an obsolete term. Replace it with Sarcocystidae and it
is much easier to find information. Members of this group are coccidian
parasites and two genera within the group infect humans, Sarcocystis and
Toxoplasma. I assume you are asking about Sarcocystis. Depending upon
the species involved, humans can act as either intermediate hosts or
definitive hosts.
When humans act as intermediate hosts, the organism forms cysts in muscle
tissue (both skeletal and cardiac). An old term for these cysts is
Miescher's tubules. There are at least 7 morphological type of cyst
found in humans, each presumably is a due to a different species of
Sarcocystis, although they are often referred to as "Sarcocystis
lindemanii" Generally there is no indication of the infection,
occasionally there may be some local muscle soreness. Specific treatment
has not been studied, nor is it needed for the muscle infection. Only
about 40-50 cases have been reported in the medical literature, mostly
from Asia.
There are two species, for which humans act as the definitive host.
Sarcocystis hominis has a life cycle involving man and cattle and
Sarcocystis suihominis has a life cycle involving man and swine. humans
acquire the infection from ingesting the cysts in muscle tissue from one
of these two sources. They both produce an identical disease which
begins approximately 6 hours from the time of ingestion of the meat.
Symptoms include bloating, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea and
fever. The symptoms usually last no longer than 24 to 48 hours. The
disease appears more severe in immunocompromised persons but the number
of reported cases is small. Again there is no recommended specific
treatment for this infection. Intestinal sarcocystosis appears to be
most common in Europe.
I have not gone into great detail into the life cycle, morphology,
laboratory diagnosis, etc... if you have any other question let me know.
