[Bowel parasites and faecal eosinophilia].
The staining of polynuclear eosinophils (PE) in the stools, easily performed and adapted from the technique of WHEATLEY, presents important advantages over the May-Grünwald-Giemsa: less colouring of the bacteria, no dissolution of the lipids, less importance of the stools pH. The stools samples must show mucus or have a soft, loose or liquid consistency: the polynuclear eosinophils are preserved in stools for 1 year and more, which allows if necessary to postpone for a few days the direct examination. The PE are found among patients having a helminthiasis or an intestinal coccidiosis in half of the cases, whereas they are not found in other intestinal protozoosis. They are also found among patients having an intestinal allergy. Faecal eosinophilia reveals an intestinal eosinophilia of the tissue and is influenced by several factors in particular: importance, duration, repetition of the infestation. It allows the observation of many elements related to the mechanism of eosinophilia, not to be found in blood eosinophilia, in particular the release of the eosinophil granule, the formation of Charcot-Leyden crystals and the presence of lipid bodies similar to those of stearrhoea.