Studies on bilharzial dysentery: the relation among the egg count, the number of bowel motion and the antibody titre and the relation between the schistosomal antibody titre as detected by indirect haemagglutination test and the size of the wheal area of the intradermal test.

Abstract

The authors studied the relation among the egg count, the number of motions and the antibody titer in 185 patients suffering from bilharzial dysentery. They found that no significant relation between the level of antibody titre and the number of ova and also no relation between egg count and number of motions but a significant relation between the number of bowel motions and the level of antibody titre was recorded. An auto-immune mechanism in Schistosoma mansoni has also been shown in this work but it needs further proof. On the other hand two diagnostic tests were performed namely the intradermal test and the indirect haemagglutination test. The former gave 84% positivity while the latter gave 94% positivity. In comparing the wheal size of the intradermal test and the titre of haemagglutination, it has been found that the wheal increases in size with rise of the titre. Therefore the wheal size can roughly suggest the level of immunity of the patient.