Abstract
The present study was undertaken to asses the effect of different direct electric
current (200mA, 400mA and 600mA) on the activity of protoscolices of the larval stage
of Echinococcus granuosusin vitro and in vivo. The hydatid cysts were collected from
the sheep livers in the Al-Najaf Al-Ashraf carnage, they were divided into 5 groups(5
cysts in each group), the first group was considered as the control group where there
was no electric current used, in the other 4 groups an electric current 200mA,400mA,
600mA and 800mA passed through the hydatid cysts respectively, each cyst then was
opened separately and its fluid was collected in sterile test tubes, then the protoscolices
were isolated to evaluate their activity. 20 rats were enrolled in this study (5 rats in each
group). The first group was considered as the positive control group in which rats were
injected with 1ml of protoscolices from the group that did not expose to electric current.
The second group was considered as the negative control group in which rats were
injected with 1ml of normal saline not exposed to electric current. In the third and forth
groups rats were injected with 1ml of protoscolices that were exposed to electric current
600mA and 800mA respectively. After 3 months the rats underwent laparatomy and
biopsies from the liver, spleen and lung were taken to study the histopathologic
changes.The in vitro study showed that there were significant effects and the percent of
killing of the peotoscolices reached 100% both at zero time (at 800mA) and at the
fourth minute (at 600mA). While the in vivo study showed that the number and size of
the cysts in the body organs like liver, lung and spleen were decreased in the third and
forth group when compared with the positive control group. Microscopically, there were
inflammatory cells and cysts in the infected organs of the positive control group which
were disappeared when treated with the electric current without any histological