An unexpected page last Sunday. Call.... about...., 1-800 number, blood parasites. Strange message. I called the number back and ask for the name displayed on my beeper. The caller was a hematology tech from one of the "mill" labs. She had just seen parasites in the red blood cells of one of my patients: ring forms with some extracellular forms. She told me she needed to go over the slide with her supervisor in the morning for "speciation." We were both very excited.
The Maryland state health department states there has been only one confirmed case of Babesia in the state. Hence, all the ID docs dismiss all positive Babesia serologies as "false positives."
One of my patients made a ranting youtube video after consulting two ID docs at Hopkins. He is very sick and showed them: positive serology for B. duncan, a positive FISH test and a positive PCR test. One of the docs didn't know what B duncani is. He was told: " We don't use that lab." (IgeneX) "What lab do you use," he inquired. Response: " Different labs - we just don't use that one."
The health officials says PCR (false positives, experimental) isn't good enough to confirm a case. You need microscopic confirmation.
Here it was, the second confirmed case in the state of Maryland I thought. (Incentally, the same mill lab posted positive serology for B. microti for this patient).
But somewhere in the back of my mind it knew it was too good to be true. The supervisor from the lab in NC told me: " well, its only in a few cells, not enough for me to call it, will report it as a possible parasite, unable to "speciate."
"I am not looking for a species identification, just a genus."
Point ignored: "We see a lot of plasmodium in our lab."
"Well they are easy to see," I told him, "infect a lot of red blood cells. The point with Babesia is only a tiny percent of RBCs are infected - and the ring form is a classic presentation!" I got the impression he didn't know what I was talking about. "How many Babesia do you see in your lab?"
"About one per year, mostly from New England."
He suggested that I order a PCR to confirm the diagnosis if I suspected it. Fat chance.
He agreed that the tech did a great job and was sorry he couldn't help.
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