Chronic balantidiasis occurs with a mild intoxication syndrome, frequent (up to 2-5 times a day) loose stools, flatulence, pain in the caecum and ascending colon on palpation. Acute and continuously chronic course of balantidiasis can lead to the development of intestinal and extraintestinal complications: bleeding, perforation of colon ulcers, rectal prolapse, peritonitis, liver abscesses, hypochromic anemia.
Without specific etiotropic treatment in the acute form of balantidiasis, coumadin pills of death is very high. An extremely severe course of balantidiasis is noted when it is combined with helminthiases and acute intestinal infections.
Diagnosis and treatment of balantidiasis.
Patients with suspected balantidiasis are referred to an infectious disease specialist. The disease may be suspected on the basis of a positive epidemiological history and clinical manifestations; final confirmation and verification of the diagnosis is possible after an endoscopic examination of the intestine and laboratory tests.
In the acute stage of balantidiasis, sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy reveals focal infiltrative-ulcerative changes in the intestinal wall; in chronic course - catarrhal-hemorrhagic or ulcerative lesions. Reliable evidence of balantidiasis is the presence of vegetative forms of warfarin online in freshly excreted feces or in scrapings from the affected areas of the intestine. Identification of cysts indicates a transient carriage of a protozoal infection. During the diagnosis, balantidiasis is differentiated from bacterial dysentery, amoebiasis, giardiasis, cryptosporidiosis, dysbacteriosis, and ulcerative colitis.