Original Research Article

Fecal Occult Blood Test for Gastrointestinal Parasitic Infection among Adult population Healthin Saudi Arabia, Jazan City

Ammar A. Abdelmola^1*, Ahmed Elimam², Mohamed Elfatih Abdelwadoud³, Olla Rahmtallah⁴, Sarra Kamal⁵

^1.2.4.5Department of Medical Laboratory Technology, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, Jazan University-azan

³Faculty of Medical Laboratory Sciences, University of Medical Sciences and Technology -Sudan

*Corresponding Author's Email: aabdelmola@jazanu.edu.sa
Phone: + 966 537194430

Received: 13 January 2023  I  Accepted: 16 February 2023  I  Published: 18 February 2023  I  Article ID: MRJMMS23004
Copyright © 2023 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article.
This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0.

Abstract

Infections due to intestinal parasites are among the most adult population health problems , cause most prevalent infections in adult humans beings in developing countries. Faecal occult blood refers to blood in the faeces that is not visible to the naked eye and FOBT, as the name implies, is aimed to detect subtle blood loss in the gastrointestinal tract from the mouth to the colon. This study aimed to prove if there is a relation between FOB and intestinal parasites. Stool samples of 112adult patients from different cities of Jazan province south of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Direct wet smear and faecal sedimentation method, Formal ether concentration technique (FECT), were used for the detection of the intestinal parasites. A commercially available immunological FOBT kit was used to detect FOB. The result showed that 8( 7.2% ) of studied cases were infected by parasitic infection, 4(3.6%) of them were positive for FOB. Parasites detected were Entamoeba histolytica and Giardialambelia. 2 (2.1%) of the studied male cases and 2(14.5%) of female cases were positive for FOBT. We concluded that this study demonstrated a slightly high prevalence positive FOBT, no association between intestinal parasitic infection or sex and positive FOBT, although a significant relation was present between age and positive FOBT. We recommend that FOBT, due to its low-cost and ease of use, we advocate for the immediate integration of FOBT as a tool in as routine tests in clinics and hospitals especially for old aged patients, further studies should be done for detection of correlation between other intestinal parasitic infection and FOB.

Keywords: FOBT (Faecal Occult Blood), Formal ether concentration technique (FECT), Intestinal parasites