If my body could play an April Fool’s joke on me, my guess it would be this one. Here, a 32 year old patient was horrified to notice “worms” in his poop. And like any sane person would, he carefully fished a sample of the worm-laden poop out of the toilet to bring to his doctor. Given the patient’s travel history, the doctor suspected a hookworm infection, and sent the sample off to the lab.
Turns out the “worms” were mung bean sprouts from the previous night’s Chinese food. As the authors note: “When analyzing stool contents, even if parasitic infections are suspected, taking a careful history of the patient’s diet can help make a diagnosis. In this case, microbiologic analysis might have been avoided had a connection been made between the stool contents and the patient’s dinner the night before. Knowledge of the different varieties of bean sprouts could also have aided in making the final diagnosis.”
Hat tip to Therese for sending us this gem!
