Dientameoba fragilis consideration in the differential diagnosis and association with irritable bowel syndrome. Roma Uthappa1 1University of technology Sydney, Broadway, Australia Abstract On average 10 % of the population would have symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome at any given time and approximately 200 people per 1 0 0, 0 0 0 will be given the diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome through the course of a single year (Choung and Locke, 2 0 1 1). These patients will suffer from symptoms such as altered stool pattern of constipation and diarrhoea, abdominal pain, weight loss, vomiting, bloating, and nausea (Engsbro et al., 2 0 1 2). Small population studies have demonstrated a link between D. fragilis and it role in irritable bowel syndrome however not yet been completely established (Engsbro et al, 2 0 1 2). The studies illustrate that irritable bowel syndrome symptoms may be caused by the D. fragilis a trichomonad which is a non - flagellated gastrointestinal parasite, which causes dientamoebiasis. This parasite was discovered approximately 100 years ago and was first determined to be non - pathogenic (Barratt et al., 2 0 1 1) due to D. fragilis not having an identifiable cyst form thus concurring with its …show more content…
Unlike most parasites which use cysts as a mode of transmission for infection the D. fragilis does not have a cyst stage, thus the trophozoite stage is when the infection occurs (Clark, Röser and Stensvold, 2 0 1 4). It is an associate in the cause of gastrointestinal diseases (Nagata et al., 2012), in particular with irritable bowel syndrome with world-wide occurrences. (Stark et al., 2007). D. fragilis is frequently found in a younger age group (< 2 0), as well as in females in comparison to an older age group or in males (Yang and Scholten,