PSEUDOPARASI

TES/ARTIFACTS/
CONFUSERS
ARTIFACTS
• Suspicious forms that visually resemble parasites in terms of
Size and Morphology.

• other things, living or artificial, present in the stool that are not
parasites and could mislead the laboratory worker.

• Artifacts are found primarily in Stool and blood samples

• Many of the artifacts are the results of
1. Disease process
2. Medications
3. Dietary Habits

• Free-living organism in the stool are the results of specimen

contact with:

1. Water
2. Sewage
3. Soil
• Artifacts found in blood are the ff:

1. Stain precipitate
2. Red blood cells abnormalities
3. White blood cells
4. Howell-jolly bodies
5. Platelet clumping
Most Common Artifacts
WBC (White blood cells)
• Round or slightly elongated,
with an irregular outline.
• Contain refractile cytoplasm,
clear and granular with tiny
vacuoles.
• Nucleus indistinct, sometimes
with a star- shaped false
karyosome
• Two to four lobed nucleus

• Resembles:
Entamoeba histolytica Cyst
Macrophage (Mononuclear WBC)
• Range from 28-62 um
• With ingested Red
Blood Cells and debris
• Irregular shape nucleus

Resembles:
Entamoeba histolytica
trophozoites
Pollen grains
• thick walled ,
measuring 12- 20 um
• Round and symmetrical
lobed

• Resembles
• Taenia spp. egg
Vegetable cell
• Large and roundish oval
to irregular round in shape
• Measuing up to 150 um
• With thick cell wall
• The interior portion is
unorganized and often
appears to consist large
vacuoles
• Resembles
Helminth eggs
Vegetables spirals
• Consist of ladder like
appearance

• Consist of series of
rungs that are spaced
closely together

• Resembles
Helminth larvae
Charcot-Leyden Crystals
• Typically seen in stool and
sputum and has a clinical
significance
• Should be reported when
seen
• Indicates an immune
response of unknown origin
• Diamond shaped crystal
• From eosinophil
breakdown products
Yeast
• Uniform in color have few
inclusions and no nucleus
• It measures 4 to 8 um
• Occasionally with small granules
resembling karyosomes

• Resembles
• Entamoeba nana, E. hartmani
and E. hominis
• Oocyst of Crytosporidium
Plant Hair
• Appear to have
nondescript internal
structure
• Does not have diagnostic
structure such as buccal
cavity and etc.

• Resembles
Helminth larvae
Plant cell
• Measures 12 to 150 um
• Rough in appearance and may
have hairs extending from its
periphery
• The interior appears to have a
cluster of odd-shaped vacuoles

• Resembles
Unfertilized Ascaris lumbricoides
Epithelial cell
• It has large single
nucleus and often shows
a distinct cell wall

• Resembles
Amebic Trophozoites
Starch granules
• Round to irregular round-
shaped starch granules
• Measures < 10 um
• But lacks internal structures

• Resembles
Protozoan cyst
Ex. E. harmanni and E. nana
Clumped or Fused Platelets
• Appears in various shades
of purple

• Resembles:
Malarial parasites
Especially young
Trophozoites
• Resembles
Malarial parasite
Red Cell Abnormalities
• Howell jolly bodies or cabots
ring
• It is a basophilic nuclear
remnants (cluster of DNA)
• It is removed from the blood
cells when it is in the spleen

• Resembles
Malarial parasites
Earth worms
• Elongated and
segmented
• It has a purple brown
dorsal surface
• Paler ventral surface

• Resembles
Ascaris lumbricoides
Oil droplets and Air Bubbles