egg count

So I took a standard stool test through Quest lab, and all 3 samples came back negative for ova. I did use one stool for all three samples, rather than 3 different days. One has to wonder, are light infections producing enough eggs for the standard test to find them? In the Nottingham dose ranging study, there were a few weeks where no eggs were found:

“Egg counts for individual subjects were variable and two subjects had one or two weeks in which eggs were not seen, having previously been detected.”

Those that got 50 worms had higher counts:

“The highest egg counts occurred in the people who received 50 larvae; median egg counts were similar in participants allocated to the two lower doses.”

I got a total of 37 larvae; but only 10 were given in the first dose. Then, by 2′s and 3′s, and one has to wonder if any of those attached. I’m having AIT incubate a sample for me to see if anything grows. I should know tomorrow.

IF I still have worms, which by my symptoms I would guess I have few, then the question becomes how to raise the population. If I have adequate worms, then I suppose I wait and hope I’m like the video of the guy with psoriasis, who had 60 worms, got better, relapsed, then waited, and got better after 11 months or so. I don’t know though, regression happened when I added worms. It really points to a lower population.

I guess I’ll know soon enough. Then I’ll have to figure out what to do…

So I’ve had a very eventful week calling labs across California to see if they’d do a quantitative egg count for me. The answer from all? No.

“Why do you want to do an egg count?”
“I’m trying to determine my aproximate worm burden for an experimental
hookworm infection.”
“How do you do an egg count anyway?”
“I was hoping you knew. From what I’ve read online, one measures eggs
per gram of feces, using a grid slide.”
“But I take a small amount of that stool and look under a microscope.
We can tell you light infection, heavy infection, but cannot count.”

Or will not?

And so on.

My favorite was calling UCDavis and being transferred first to the
rodent division, who were very nice, but said I needed the large
animal division. At this point I was becoming desperate and asked if
I could just be a large animal, though I think the dog vets would be
more familiar with hookworm egg counts. No one would help me.

Finally, I found this:

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/599020/Macmaster-counting-Technique-pp

http://cal.vet.upenn.edu/projects/parasit06/website/lab1.htm#techniques

Nottingham’s dose-ranging study used the Macmaster counting technique. It seems rather simple. You mix a small amount of measured feces with salt water and a tongue dispenser, then pass it through a sieve. Then suck up a measured quantitity, and put it on a grid slide. Then, going slowly up and down the grid, you count the visible eggs, and multiply it by the correct number to get your eggs per gram of feces. If we all learned to do this accurately, we could monitor our egg output post infection, and watch it through the months/years to track a decline in adult hookworm population.

What I’d like to know is how one cleans the lab equipment without the lab. Somehow I’m not that thrilled. I’d rather bake a cake.