INTESTINAL MICROSPORIDIOSIS IN A CHILEAN PATIENT WITH ACQUIRED-IMMUNODEFICIENCY-SYNDROME (AIDS)

A 24-year-old male patient with AIDS diagnosed in 1989, and with sever al episodes of pneumocystosis, was admitted because of a chronic diarr heic syndrome and severe epigastric pain. Endoscopy showed a granular duodenal mucosa. Light microscopy showed a moderate villous atropby wi th round-cell inflammatory infiltration of the chorion. Giemsa, Ziehl- Neelsen, and Gram stains showed microsporidial spores measuring betwee n 1.5 and 2 mum in the supranuclear cytoplasm of some enterocytes. Ele ctron microscopy showed sporoblasts and spores consistent with Enteroc ytozoon bieneusi, with an apparently non-tubular, rather electron-dens e polar filament showing up to 7 coils and also a microtubular interna l structure with annular disposition, a finding which has not been ade quately emphasized in the pertinent literature, probably representing a contractile property of the polar filament, rather than a mere duct for the parasitic sporoplasm to be inoculated.