Bahman Khalilidehkordi, Ali Nickhah, Fouruzan Ganji and Nahid Jivad
Shahrekord University, Iran
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Med Microb Diagn
Background & Aim: Toxocariasis is an infection caused by ingestion of larvae of the dog roundworm Toxocara canis or the cat roundworm Toxocara cati. This disease is a zoonotic parasitic disease with worldwide distribution. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an auto-immune disease with unknown etiology. Whereas, Shahrekord is located on husbandry region and the relationship between infectious diseases such as toxocariasis proposed, this study was done to detect a possible relationship between the disease and Toxocara infection. Methods: This case-control study was done from September 2015 to May 2016. A total of 70 serum samples of patients with MS which were diagnosed by Macdonald criteria as cases and 70 serums from apparently healthy blood donor as controls were obtained. Samples were examined to detect Toxocara IgG antibodies by ELlSA method. The data were analyzed using Chi-squire and Fisher exact test by SPSS Version 16 software. Results: Out of 70 samples for each case and control group, eight cases (11.5%) and one control (1%) were positive for toxocariasis and had IgG antibodies against Toxocara infection and showed a significant relationship between MS and toxocariasis (p<0.05). However, there was no relationship between toxocariasis and age, sex, job, education and place of living. Conclusion: This study showed that there was a significant association between Toxocara seropositive and multiple sclerosis. However, due to small sample size there was a need of a comprehensive and multi-center study to confirm our results. This finding suggests that Toxocara infection may increase the risk of multiple sclerosis.
Medical Microbiology & Diagnosis received 14 citations as per Google Scholar report
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