Comparative clinical and ultrasound study of egg-negative and egg-positive individuals from Schistosoma mansoni low morbidity endemic areas, and hospitalized patients with hepatosplenic disease

Two hundred and twenty three subjects from a Schistosoma mansoni low morbidity endemic area and nine hospitalized hepatosplenic patients were submitted to stool test and clinical examination and abdomen ultrasound assessments. According to stool examination and ultrasound results, they were grouped as follows: G1 - 63 Schistosoma mansoni egg-negative individuals; G2 - 141 egg-positive patients and without evidence of periportal fibrosis; G3 - 19 egg-positive patients with periportal echogenicity (3-6mm); and G4 - 9 hepatosplenic patients with periportal echogenicity (> 6mm). Hepatomegaly detected by physical examination of the abdomen evaluated in the midclavicular line was verified in G1, G2 and G3, respectively, in 11.1, 12.1 and 26.3%. In G1, G2 and G3, periportal thickening occurred only in schistosomal patients (8.5%). Mild pathological alterations in patients that cannot yet be detected by clinical examination were detectable in the liver by ultrasound and can be due to fibrosis. The degree of mild periportal fibrosis was diminished in 57.9% of patients 12 months after treatment of schistosomiasis with oxamniquine. At ultrasonography, the mean liver left lobe measurement of G3 was larger than that of G1, and that of G4 larger than that of G1 and G2. The mean size of the spleen of G4 was significantly larger than that of the other three groups, and that of G3 larger than that of G1 and G2.

Physa acuta Draparnaud, 1805 (Gastropoda: Physidae): a study of topotypic specimens

A description is given of Physa acuta Draparnaud, 1805, based on topotypic specimens from the Garonne river basin, and additional samples from the environs of the French cities of Montpellier and Perpignan. It proved indistinguishable, in shell and anatomy, from topotypic Physa cubensis Pfeiffer, 1839, thus leading the authors to admit the synonymy of the two nominal species under the older name, P. acuta.

Hemilucilia segmentaria (Fabricius, 1805) (Diptera: Calliphoridae) as new biological vector of eggs of Dermatobia hominis (Linnaeus Jr., 1781) (Diptera: Oestridae) in Reserva Biológica do Tinguá, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The aim of this note was to record for the first time the finding of Hemilucilia segmentaria acting as biological vector of Dermatobia hominis, during a study of the diversity of Calliphoridae at Reserva Biológica do Tinguá, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The insects were captured using traps baited with chicken vicera, for a period of 28-30 h twice per month. In the period of one year, 1987 insects were collected, 7.5% of which belonged to the H. segmentaria; of these a female was captured in May 2001, carrying a mass of 20 eggs on the left side of its abdomen.