SUMMARY Factors associated with oral candidiasis in 51 diabetics were examined. The prevalence of oral yeast infection was 49 (n = 25)%. The association with diabetic control, as measured by fasting blood glucose concentration, urinary glucose concentration, and glycosylated haemoglobin, with the presence of yeast was analysed in the 51 diabetic patients. Glycosylated ha-moglobin above 12% was strongly associated with oral yeast infection (odds ratio = 13-00) (p < 0 001), while fasting blood and urinary glucose concentrations were not. The risk of oral candidiasis among diabetics wearing dentures was significantly higher than among dentate diabetics (odds ratio = 4 78). After controlling for the effect of denture wearing, glycosylated haemoglobin greater than 12% remained highly predictive of oral yeast infection, particularly among diabetics without dentures.

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Recently, the transformation of Schistosoma mansoni cercaria into schistosomulum have been investigated by several workers, mainly in relation to the immunological and biochemical aspects. A t first glance a logical conclusion from the facts available is that various modification steps occur during the transformation of a cercaria (a free living larva adapted to a freshwater environment) to a schistosomulum (an organism newly adapted to the host conditions).Various methods for collecting living schisto somula have been described and the larvae have been recovered both in vitro and in vivo. The basic differences between cercaria and schistosomulum were established by Stirewalt1** 20 Additional differences were subsequently reported^ 3 9 11 12 22 23 24 These differences are the standard criteria by which the organisms recovered by in vitro methods can be considered to be schistosomula.

Treatment with dexamethasone (DMS) in the early phases of the experimental Schistosoma mansoni infection causes an indirect effect on the cercaria-schistosomulum transformation process. This is observed when naive albino mice are treated with that drug (50 mg/Kg, subcutaneously) and infected intraperitonealy 01 hour later with about 500 S. mansoni cercariae (LE strain). An inhibition in the host cell adhesion to the larvae, with a simultaneous delay in the cercaria-schistosomulum transformation, is observed. This effect is probably due to a blockade of the neutrophil migration to the peritoneal cavity of mice, by an impairment of the release of chemotactic substances. Such delay probably favors the killing of S. mansoni larvae, still in the transformation process, by the vertebrate host defenses, as the complement system.

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