A COMPLICATED CASE OF STRONGYLOIDIASIS PRESENTING WITH INTESTINAL LYMPHADENOPATHY OBSTRUCTION: MOLECULAR IDENTIFICATION.

Strongyloides stercoralis is an intestinal nematode, which can cause com- plications in immune-compromised hosts. We present a rare case of intestinal obstruction due to mesenteric lymphadenopathy, a complication due to stron- gyloidiasis, developing in a male subject chronically receiving corticosteroid for pemphigus vulgaris. DNA was extracted from biopsied lymph nodes containing nematode larvae and PCR amplified using primers specific for S. stercoralis 18S rDNA. Nucleotide sequence of the amplicon showed identity with that of S. sterco- ralis deposited in GenBank. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a diagnosis of strongyloidiasis from biopsied samples using molecular techniques.