[Intestinal parasitosis and hepatic cirrhosis]

The authors describe their experience, in a prospective survey, with the prevalence rates of intestinal parasites in patients with hepatic cirrhosis admitted to the Gastroenterology Unit of University Hospital of Federal University in Juiz de Fora, Brazil, whose fresh stools were examined by Hoffman-Pons-Janner, Baermann-Moraes and Willis methods. They compare the results of stool exams with two control groups and look for a relation with cirrhosis' etiology. A higher prevalence of some parasites was observed in cirrhosis than in people with other digestive diseases (group I). mainly for the Strongyloides stercoralis, found in 40.2%, chiefly in alcoholic cirrhosis. Oddly no one of the group I admitted in the same period had strongyloidiasis. Another group including all the people who had stool samples examined in the same period at the hospital had 1.91% of that helmintic infection (group II). A comparison is also made with the prevalence in schoolchildren between the ages of 7 and 14 studies eight years before (13.16%). Other parasites were also observed in different incidence between those with cirrhosis and the other groups and the results are presented. They conclude that hepatic cirrhosis must be included in the list of conditions which increases the risk of Strongyloides stercoralis infection.