الفهرس 
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Abstract
Giardiasis is one of the most commonly diagnosed ;estinal protozoan infection. It has a wold wide tribution. The infection is transmitted by ingestion cysts as a result of insanitary habits or contaminated d or drink. It is most prevalent in children ecially in large families and institutions.
The clinical picture of giardiasis varies from lymptomatic state to severe diarrhoeal illness with ilabsorption. The histopathological changes of J-’;>; lodenal and jejunal biopsies have been found to irrelate with the clinical picture.
The invasiveness and toxigenicity caused by ardia are usually counter balanced by the immune chanisms of normal host.
The immune response to Giardia is complex and folves both humoral and cell mediated factors in nnal people. The cell mediated immune response in Irdiasis was suggested to have an important role, but poorly understoad.
.
The aim of this work was studying the cell lediated immune response versus the parasite load.
The present work was carried out on 30 children 3 - 10 years old with symptomatic giardiasis. They vere matched with 10 healthy parasite free children of same age and socioeconomic standard.
vacn patient was subjected to the following:
- Clinical examination.
- Stool examination (by direct and stained smears}.
- The intensity of infection was assessed by counting the cysts in 10 different high power fields.
- The cellular immune response was assessed by two methods:
. T-cell count by the rosette formation technique. . T-cell function by the blast transformation technique using PHA.
Clinically, the most frequent symptoms and signs -••’.jug patients with giardiasis were diarrhoea followed
anorexia, abdominal colic, loss of weight and ■=’anted growth.
It was found that 17 patients had cyst number Wess than 34 with a mean 24-7 and 13 patients with
:yst number more than 34- A significant difference was found between the two groups of patients as regard the parasite load. The parasite load did not correlate with the severity of the clinical status.
T-cell CQUXLV,
The percentages of T-lymphocytes in patients with giardiasis were in the range of 32 - 70 with a mean 50.06 °/ , while in the control group the range was 53 - 68 with a mean 60.6 . A significant difference between patients and their corresponding control was found ( P <^_0.05 ). There was no correlation between the parasite load and the T-cell count in giardiasis.
T-cell function:
The level of the lymphocytes proliferation was represented as the stimulation index (SI) . The value of SI in- patients ranged between 1.03 - 5.40 with a mean 2.26 compared with the range 4-5 - 12.1 and a mean 7.18 with control group. The stimulation index of patients with giardiasis was markedly reduced as compared to the control group ( P <^0.05 ). A non significant correlation was found between T-cell function and parasite load.