Prevalence of Cryptosporidium s . in ectio in R nal Transplant and Hemodialysi Patients

Transplanted and hemodialysis patients are frequently affected by parasitic disea. es such as cryptosporidiosis. ci)'ptosporidiumis a para ite causing self-limited diarrhea and enteritis in healthy individual . the prese nce of cryptosporidiuminfection was studied in three groups including 87 renal transplant patients, 103 hemodialysis patients, and 60 health y individualas the control group. two stoo l specimens were obtained from each case. the specimens were concentrated by theformalin-ether method and two smears were prepared from each. the smea were tained by modified acid -fast method andwere observed under a light micro. cope. ten (11.5%) renal transplant and 4 (3.88%) hemodialysis patients were positive forcryptosporidium infection. no positive results were obtai ned in the control group. the results showed a statis tically signifi cantdifference between renal transplant and con trol grou ps (p= 0.02), but the difference between hemodialysi and controlgroups was not significant (p= 0.2). the results also showed that the rate of cryptosporidium infection in renal transplantpatients was much higher than h modialysis patients. the susceptibility of renal transplant patients to cryptosporidium infectionis mueh more than other studied groups and this eould be due to immunosuppr ssive therapy in these patients.