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A 30-year-old Japanese homosexual AIDS patient was admitted to hospital because ofKaposi's sarcoma and mild diarrhea on February 4, 1993. Mud-like stool with blood and mucous was recognized after admission. Although serologic tests for Entamoebahistolytica were negative, trophozoites of E. histolytica were identified in his bloody stool. Daily doses of 1,000 mg of metronidazole were given orally for 6 days and then 750 mg for 4 days, and good results were observed. His CD4 count was 19.5/mm3. Symptomatic amebic colitis was easily treated and good results were obtained even with the extremely diminished CD4count. This is the first published report of symptomatic amebic colitis in an AIDSpatient in Japan.

An attempt to identify cysts of Entamoeba histolytica and E. dispar in human stool was conducted by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using two sets of primers (p11 plus p12 and p13 plus p14) specific for either species of ameba. The cysts in stool specimens obtained from 12 infected individuals were concentrated, freeze-thawed, and treated with Triton X-100 before their examination by PCR. The results of PCR on the cysts were generally consistent with data obtained by PCR on ameba trophozoites hatched from the cysts, by zymodeme analysis, and by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and with clinical findings. This PCR was negative for the stool containing large numbers of cysts of either E. coli, E. hartmanni, or Giardia lamblia as well as for the stool specimens obtained from uninfected individuals. The ameba cyst in stool processed using the present method was effective for the PCR analysis even after 1 month of storage at 4 degrees C. The present PCR was sensitive enough to detect ten cysts of either of the amebae.