Conservación de heces humanas para la detección de antígenos de excreción-secreción de Fasciola hepatica

introduction: fascioliasis is an endemic disease in cattle in cuba, but in the last few years, there has been an increase in the number of reported human cases. objectives: the difficulties in diagnosing this disease in rural areas or in zones far away from the laboratory make it necessary to find adequate solutions that allow preserving the stool specimens until the antigen is detected by the fascidig？ method. methods: several preserving solutions were used (2 % potassium dichromate, 0,5 % aqueous hibitane, 2 % glutaral, 1 % benzalkonium chloride, 0,04% sodic azide and 0,05 % distilled water with 20 tween) at room temperature, 4 oc and - 20 oc. results: among the samples kept at room temperature, those with no preserve suffered a significant deterioration, and their values were higher than the ones of the samples conserved with distilled water with tween 20 and with sodium azide. the latter is a very toxic product and its use would require a greater care. conclusions: 0,05 % distilled water with 20 tween at room temperature was the preserving solution with the best results in this study.