QUANTITATIVE STUDIES ON THE EMERGENCE OF ONCHOCERCA VOLVULUS MICROFILARIAE FROM SKIN SNIPS

Abstract

The authors made studies on the emergence of O. volvulus microfilariae from skin snips in order to assess accurate MFD in onchocercal infections from quantitative view point. The results obtained are as follows : Skin snips should not be teased into small pieces, but the intact snips should be incubated for a longer period than the teased ones. The distribution of microfilariae in a minute skin area is quantitatively even in most cases. This finding suggests the usefulness of this method to compare MFD of the adjacent skin regions to each other. However, the comparison of MFD with extremely different-sized snips should be avoided. There were no significant changes in MFD by warming skin surface.