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Anisakidosis is an accidental and cosmopolitan parasitic zoonosis of human beings, its definitive host being marine mammals such as sea lions, seals and dolphins, among others. Humans are infested by consumption in the larval stage of the nematode of Anisakis present in raw fish and shellfish such as hake or conger eel. The infestation is preferably located in the upper digestive tract, observing the regurgitation of the parasite to the mouth or becoming evident during an upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. In rare cases, the larvae can migrate to the peritoneum or continue their passage through the small intestine and colon, with expulsion in stools being unusual. We present a case of expulsion of two larvae of the Anisakidae family in feces.

Illusory parasitosis, better known as delusional parasitosis, is a neuropsychiatric syndrome in which patients have the belief of suffering a parasitic disease, that can not be demonstrated after an exhaustive medical study. These patients are characterized by being polyconsultants in different medical specialties and, many of them, have antecedents of psychiatric disorders, some of them undiagnosed. Knowing the existence of the clinical picture, diagnosing early and empathizing with the patient, could give to clinician some clues for a timely and assertive psychiatric referral, and improve patient adherence to the proposed treatment.

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a functional disorder of the gastrointestinal tract characterised by multi-factorial aetiology. In IBS physiopathology are involved diverse factors between them biological, psychosocial, and environmental components which affect the immune activation status of gut mucosa. Among these factors is recognized the intestinal parasitosis. Post-infection IBS (PI-IBS) is recognised as a subgroup of functional disorders whose symptoms onset appear after a symptomatic intestinal infection caused by microbial agents. There are few studies regarding of relationship between IBS and intestinal parasitosis in Chile. However, is has been well described a positive association between IBS and Blastocystis hominis infections, one of prevalent parasites in Chile. In other countries, is also described a relationship between IBS and amebiasis and giardiasis. Both, characterized by a common mode of transmission through water as well as contaminated food. Because the high prevalence of parasitosis in our country it is necessary to expand the association studies to clarify the strength of the parasites ethiology in IBS.

Eleven years after they had been given itraconazole or allopurinol for the treatment of chronic American trypanosomiasis, 109 adult patients were checked for electrocardiographic abnormalities and evidence of Trypanosoma cruzi infection. The parasitological investigations included xenodiagnosis, in which the faeces of Triatoma infestans that had fed on the patients were checked under the microscope for flagellates. In addition, a PCR-based assay and a hybridization assay were used to test blood samples from the patients, and faeces from the Tri. infestans that had fed on the patients, for Try. cruzi DNA. For the data analysis, the patients were divided into four groups known as normal/normal, abnormal/normal, normal/abnormal and abnormal/abnormal, according to whether the patients had been found to have normal or abnormal electrocardiograms (ECG) shortly before the first treatment and to have normal or abnormal ECG when checked at the 11-year follow-up. The 51 normal/normal and 24 normal/abnormal patients were assumed to have been in the 'indeterminate' phase of the disease when they were treated, whereas the 16 abnormal/normal and 18 abnormal/abnormal patients all had evidence of chagasic cardiopathy at that time. When checked 11 years post-treatment, 40 (78.4%), 17 (70.8%), 14 (87.5%) and 17 (94.4%) of these patients, respectively, were each found positive for Try. cruzi in at least one of the parasitological tests. The hybridization assay, whether applied to human blood or bug faeces, appeared a significantly more sensitive test than the PCR-based assays or microscopically assessed xenodiagnosis (P

Human fascioliasis is a parasitic zoonosis that affects the liver of human and herbivorous animals. In chronic cases, its diagnosis is confirmed by direct visualization of parasitic eggs in stool examination, by positive testing for Fasciola hepatica antigens in stools, or by direct observation of parasites by endoscopic retrograde cholangiography or surgery. In acute cases, serological reactions as immunoblothing or detection of parasite antigens in the blood are useful. The treatment of choice is triclabendazole. However, parasite resistance in animals, as well as in man, has been reported to this drug. We report four patients in whom the parasitic infection persisted despite a course of treatment with triclabendazole.

In the xenodiagnosis (XD) of American trypanosomiasis (Chagas disease), Trypanosoma cruzi in the triatomine bugs fed on the patient can now be detected using PCR (XD-PCR) as well as by microscopy (XD-M). In a study to compare XD-PCR with XD-M, triatomine bugs were fed on 50 cases of chronic American trypanosomiasis, of whom only 25 were ever found positive by XD-M. Overall, the bugs fed on 34 of the patients (all 25 cases found positive by XD-M and nine of the other patients) were found PCR-positive, giving a 330-bp fragment corresponding to part of the hyper variable region of the kinetoplast DNA of T. cruzi. Of the 25 patients who were ever found positive by XD-M, 20 gave bugs that were smear-positive on day 90 and a similar number (24; P=0.125) gave bugs that were PCR-positive at this time. On day 30, however, the bugs fed on only 11 of these 25 patients were found positive by microscopy, whereas 23 of these patients were found positive by XD-PCR (P=0.0016). Thus, not only was XD-PCR more sensitive than XD-M but it was also quicker, revealing more cases within 30 days than detected using XD-M over a period of 90 days.

We describe the presence of anisakiasis in a patient who had a small hiatal hernia. A 60 year-old women presented general malaise, burning pain, flatulence, persistent nausea and abdominal distension during five days before consulting. She referred that she ate a dish of marinated raw fish with lemon and pepper ("cebiche") and after a few hours the symptoms began. An esophagogastroscopy showed a white colour larva of approximately three cm with the cephalic end partially adhered and localized in the mucosa of the hiatal hernia. During the procedure the worm was easily extracted. The morphologic study of the specimen identified it as a stage IV larva of Pseudoterranova sp. The clinical condition of the patient improved after the extraction of the parasite.