Question:medium
A patient has gastrointestinal problems including abdominal pain and distension, bloody or mucus-filled diarrhea, and tenesmus with rectal prolapse. A stool ova and parasite exam reveals typical barrel-shaped eggs. The possible causative agent is:
A patient has gastrointestinal problems including abdominal pain and distension, bloody or mucus-filled diarrhea, and tenesmus with rectal prolapse. A stool ova and parasite exam reveals typical barrel-shaped eggs. The possible causative agent is:
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Barrel-shaped bipolar-plugged eggs plus rectal prolapse equal whipworm.
Updated On: Jun 23, 2026
- Campylobacter
- Clostridium difficile
- Giardia lamblia
- Trichuris
Show Solution
The Correct Option is D
Solution and Explanation
Step 1: Read the laboratory result first - barrel-shaped (lemon-shaped) eggs with clear plugs at both ends are pathognomonic of one organism.
Step 2: That organism is the whipworm, Trichuris trichiura, whose adults embed in the colon and rectum.
Step 3: A heavy worm load irritates the bowel, producing dysentery-like bloody mucoid stools, tenesmus, and in children a prolapsed rectum carpeted with worms.
Step 4: The three bacterial or protozoal distractors never produce helminth ova, so the egg description alone settles it.
\[\boxed{\text{Trichuris}}\]
Step 2: That organism is the whipworm, Trichuris trichiura, whose adults embed in the colon and rectum.
Step 3: A heavy worm load irritates the bowel, producing dysentery-like bloody mucoid stools, tenesmus, and in children a prolapsed rectum carpeted with worms.
Step 4: The three bacterial or protozoal distractors never produce helminth ova, so the egg description alone settles it.
\[\boxed{\text{Trichuris}}\]
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