Charcot-Leyden crystals

Charcot-Leyden crystals

• Charcot-Leyden crystals are microscopic crystals found in people who have allergic diseases such as asthma or parasitic infections such as parasitic pneumonia or ascariasis.
• They vary in size and may be as large as 50 µm in length. Charcot-Leyden crystals are slender and pointed at both ends, consisting of a pair of hexagonal pyramids joined at their bases. Normally colorless, they are stained purplish-red by trichrome. They consist of lysophospholipase, an enzyme synthesized by eosinophils, and are produced from the breakdown of these cells.
• They are indicative of a disease involving eosinophilic inflammation or proliferation, such as is found in allergic reactions and parasitic infections.Charcot-Leyden crystals are often seen pathologically in patients with bronchial asthma.
• Fine colourless sharp-pointed crystals seen in the sputum of asthmatics.
• J.M Charkot (1825-93). French neurologist;
•  E.V Von Leyden (1832-1919), German physician.