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Case #383 - November 2014

A patient presented to a local hospital with encrusted lesions on his arms and legs. A skin scraping was made and examined unstained at 40x magnification. Figures A and B show what was observed by the attending microbiologist. The images were sent to the DPDx Team for diagnostic assistance. What is your diagnosis? Based on what criteria?

Case383_A

Figure A

Case383_B

Figure B

Case Answer

This was a case of scabies caused by the human itch mite, Sarcoptes scabiei. Diagnosis was made by the finding of characteristic eggs (arrows, Figure A) and adults in both images.

Figure A

More on: scabies

This case and images were kindly provided by the Westchester Medical Center, Valhalla, NY.

Images presented in the monthly case studies are from specimens submitted for diagnosis or archiving. On rare occasions, clinical histories given may be partly fictitious.

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DPDx is an education resource designed for health professionals and laboratory scientists. For an overview including prevention and control visit www.cdc.gov/parasites/.

  • Page last reviewed: August 24, 2016
  • Page last updated: August 24, 2016
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