Investigation of the presence of Enterocytozoon bieneusi and Encephalitozoon intestinalis in immunosuppressed patients with diarrhea by IFA and real time PCR methods

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the frequency of Enterocytozoon bieneusi and Encephalitozoon intestinalis in patients with diarrhea in the immunosuppressed.Methods: Patients between the ages of 18-85 who applied to different clinics of Mus, Bulanik and Bitlis State Hospitals and were referred to the microbiology or parasitology laboratory were selected for this study. A total of 200 individuals, including 88 immunosuppressed with diarrhea patients, 38 immunocompetent with diarrhea patients, 38 immunosuppressed without diarrhea patients, and 36 immunocompetent without diarrhea in-dividuals, were included. Collected stool samples were evaluated using IFA-MAbs and real-time PCR methods to determine the frequency of E.intestinalis and E.bieneusi.Results: E. intestinalis was detected in 59 (29.5%) of 200 samples and E. bieneusi was detected in 46 (23.0%) of them. Mixed infection was detected in 16 (8%) of the positive samples. While there was no statistically significant difference between E. intestinalis positivity and gender, age, diarrhea status and immune system status, a statis-tically significant relationship was determined between E. bieneusi positivity and diarrhea. When the real-time PCR method was accepted as the gold standard, the sensitivity of the IFA-MAbs method in the diagnosis of E.intestinalis was 94.54%, the specificity was 97.24, the sensitivity in the diagnosis of E. bieneusi was 95.45%, and the specificity was 98.72%. The overall accuracy of the IFA-MAbs method was 96.5% for the diagnosis of E.intestinalis and 98% for the diagnosis of E. bieneusi.Conclusions: The findings suggest that E. intestinalis and E. bieneusi should be considered in both immunosup-pressed and healthy individuals with diarrhea. IFA-MAbs method can be used in addition to the real-time PCR method to diagnose E. intestinalis and E. bieneusi.