Many parents who are concerned about the health of their child want to know what tests are needed to identify a lambliasis, what first signs of infection should make you worry and seek medical help. Answering such questions, doctors pay attention to the following symptoms: prolonged diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, pallor and dryness of the skin, frequent rumbling of the abdomen, uncaused irritability and rapid fatigue. Their totality should give rise to unrest. Confirm the diagnosis of certain tests. Which of them help detect a lambliasis in a child? Where should the collected material be carried? How to prepare and perform the necessary diagnostic procedures? This is in the article.
So, to find the carriage of lamblia helps:
- Analysis of feces for cysts.
- Analysis of feces for antigens to lamblia.
- Immunoenzyme analysis of blood.
Similar studies are conducted in any district clinic, in the diagnostic center, in commercial clinics, in medical laboratories, in laboratories for infectious diseases hospitals. Detection of the presence of lamblia is also possible by the content of bile extracted from the duodenum. But this operation is rather complicated in execution, it requires the use of special endoscopic equipment and high qualification of medical personnel. Because of the risk of intestinal perforation, bleeding, due to the possibility of neurotic and psychiatric disorders, the collection of duodenal contents in children and adults is extremely rare. Usually it is enough to pass tests of feces and blood to diagnose giardiasis.
How to take an analysis for Giardia?
So, studies for the presence of Giardia must begin with the study of the contents of the feces of the child. Cysts in it can be detected as early as the second week after infection. There are two ways to perform this diagnostic:
- Using a microscopic examination.
- Using an enzyme immunoassay.
Microscopic analysis of feces involves the study of feces under a microscope. While this is the most accurate study of giardiasis. If the results show the detection of cyst parasites, the answer is positive. A negative result indicates that there are no parasites in the body of the child. Positive results are not rechecked, negative answers in the decoding give an excuse for conducting at least three more studies of stool. They are held at intervals of a week. Presumably the infected child will be offered to take stool three times. Only then will the treatment begin. This is done in order to exclude the possibility of the appearance of a number of factors capable of provoking the absence of cysts in feces when carrying lamblia:
- First, the cysts are excreted wavyly, every seventeen days, so there are blind gaps in which the stool analysis can not be reliable.
- Secondly, there are laboratory errors, which also sometimes provide a negative result. These include the violation of technology collection of material, the lack of perseverance of the laboratory assistant in the production of smears and the search for lamblias.
- Third, an error in the results of the analysis can occur due to improper collection of feces from the allegedly infected child.
How correctly to collect the analysis on ljamblii?
It is important to return the material no later than 12 hours after placing the feces in a special container. As it is best to use a plastic jar, which closes tightly with a lid - it is easier to collect feces. Some laboratories make special demands on materials for research. They ask to bring "warm feces" - feces taken no later than two hours before the laboratory microscopic examination. This causes some difficulties, especially when the examination of children is carried out.
The fact is that it is difficult to collect warm feces, but it is easier to detect trophozoites - mobile vegetative forms of lamblia. They are easily identifiable. After two hours, the temperature of the feces falls, the moisture of the feces decreases, and conditions unfavorable for the trophozoites are formed, so they become cysts. Only an experienced laboratory technician can detect their presence. He does not care how long it's been since the material was collected before he was taken to the laboratory. The main thing is that this difference should not exceed 12 hours.
In large cities in all laboratories there is equipment that makes it possible to detect lamblia antigens in the stool of an infected person. He helps to learn about the carrier even in silent intervals. A positive result is diagnosed when the GSA-65 antigen is found in faeces. If it is possible to apply a similar method to diagnose carriage, it is better to choose it.
When to take a blood test for giardiasis?
In contrast to the methods described above for diagnostic diagnosis of Giardiasis, the submission of an antibody test is considered indirect, because it shows a positive or negative immune response to infection. So, for example, if any parasite settles in a child's organism or in an adult's body, special compounds( immunoglobulins Ig) appear in the blood. In the process of parasitizing worms and protozoa, five classes of immunoglobulins are formed. Each corresponds to a specific stage of infection or infection.
Antibodies of class M are formed at the initial stage of infection with Giardia, a week after the onset of the disease. They are a sign of a "fresh" infection. Over time, the amount of IgM decreases sharply, cells of other class "G" immunoglobulins appear. Their presence indicates the transition of giardiasis into a chronic stage. Based on this knowledge, it can be said with accuracy that the use of an enzyme immunoassay( abbreviated as IFA) is justified when it is necessary to determine the stage of development of lambliasis: acute or chronic. To give it or not, the attending physician decides. The analysis is being prepared for a couple of hours. Blood for study is taken from the vein.
When do they take tests for giardiasis?
Having studied the proposed material, it is not difficult to understand what tests to pass in order to determine the presence of lamblia, how to pass them, where the research of the collected material is conducted. It remains to be told about when it's time to seek help and undergo an uncomplicated examination. Symptoms of giardiasis are similar to any infectious diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. Therefore, not every parent is able to independently suspect the appearance of a parasitic infection. Therefore, it is important to study the condition of babies more closely.
Acute diarrhea, severe abdominal pain, vomiting and a significant temperature increase - parasitism of the simplest microorganisms can not cause such vivid manifestations. But there are a number of indirect symptoms that will help to suggest the right answer. Analyzes for giardiasis should be taken when the child in the abdomen constantly rumbles, diarrhea alternates with constipation, while the manifestations of intestinal infection pallor of the skin, dry skin, scaling of the lips, irritability and capriciousness. If suspicion of giardiasis is first to take IFA is inexpedient. He is little informative. First, it is advisable to conduct an analysis of feces for antibodies( if there is such a possibility).In the absence of such an opportunity to replace the study, a normal analysis of feces on the cysts of protozoan parasites is possible. If the carriage in a child or adult is confirmed, an enzyme immunoassay will help determine the stage of infection. It is this sequence of manifestations of diagnostic studies that is considered correct and informative.