Investigation of the frequency of Blastocystis spp. in patients with diarrhea in the van region and determination of its subtypes

. This study aimed to investigate the frequency of Blastocystis spp. in patients with diarrhea and to determine its subtypes by sequence analysis. A total of 200 volunteers, 100 with diarrhea (patient group) and 100 healthy individuals (control group) between the ages of 0-80, who applied to the University of Health Sciences Van Training and Research Hospital and requested stool, were included in the study. Samples were evaluated by microscopy (native-Lugol) and PCR. Blastocystis spp. was detected in 20% (20/100) of the patient group and 16% (16/100) of the control group (p= 0.461). Blastocystis spp. was detected at a higher rate in women (11/51, 21.6%) in the patient group and in men (11/53, 20.7%) in the control group. The highest rate of positivity was found in individuals between the ages of 11-18 in both the patient group and the control group, 40% and 21.4%, respectively. In the comparison of the patient group and the control group, the difference between the parasite positivity and age groups and genders was found to be statistically insignificant. Considering the total number of patients in the study (200 individuals), a statistically significant difference was found in terms of Blastocystis spp. positivity when the 0-18 age group (23%) was compared with the 19 and over age group (10.3%) (p= 0.013). No significant difference was detected between Blastocystis spp. positivity and gender and age groups in the patient group. There was no statistically significant difference between complaints of abdominal pain, fever, nausea and vomiting and blastocystosis. In the study, ST1 was detected in 10 of 14 samples (71.4%) from patients with diarrhea, and ST2 was detected in 4 (28.6%). As a result, no statistical significance was determined between the positivity of Blastocystis spp., whose pathogenicity and pathogenicity-subtype relationship are still controversial, and any gastrointestinal symptoms. ST1, which is among the subtypes generally associated with symptoms in research, was the dominant subtype in patients with diarrhea in our study. Considering our findings, it was concluded that although the fact that ST1 is the dominant subtype in patients with diarrhea supports the subtype-pathogenicity relationship, studies in which a large number of symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals are evaluated are needed to clarify this situation.