Case of the Week 595

By Bobbi Pritt, M.D. • June 17, 2020

Share this:

This week's case was generously donated by Dr. Marc Couturier and Blaine Mathison. The patient is a young adult male from the South Central United States. No travel history is available. A review of his peripheral blood film reviewed the following images. What's the identification? What are the structures seen in the last two images?

Read Dr. Pritt's blog, Parasite Wonders, and submit your answers, comments, and questions. Also, visit her website ParasiteWonders.com, which hosts an archive of classic images from cases Dr. Pritt posted going back to 2007 (in an easy-to-search "A through Z" format) and also offers a flashcard feature.

Answer to Case 595:

Plasmodium vivax with exflagellated microgametocytes. Free microgametes are seen.

Bobbi Pritt, M.D.

Bobbi Pritt, MD, MSc, is a Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology and the Director of the Clinical Parasitology Laboratory at Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota. She is also the Chair of the Division of Clinical Microbiology. Her research interests are in clinical parasitology, vector-borne diseases and the pathology of infectious diseases.