Fever, hepatosplenomegaly and pancytopenia in a patient living in the Mediterranean region

A 24 year old woman living in the Mediterranean region of Turkey present with a three-month history of weight loss and irregular fever that was peaking at 40 degrees C with shivering. No definite aetiology could be identified in a local hospital. A bacterial infection had been suspected, but antibio...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Postgraduate medical journal 1998-04, Vol.74 (870), p.237-239
Main Authors: Büyükaşik, Y., Ileri, N. S., Haznedaroğlu, I. C., Demiroğlu, H., Dündar, S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Biological and medical sciences
Female
Fever - parasitology
Hepatomegaly - parasitology
Human protozoal diseases
Humans
Infectious diseases
Leishmaniasis, Visceral - complications
Leishmaniasis, Visceral - diagnosis
Leshmaniasis
Medical sciences
Pancytopenia - parasitology
Parasitic diseases
Protozoal diseases
Splenomegaly - parasitology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A 24 year old woman living in the Mediterranean region of Turkey present with a three-month history of weight loss and irregular fever that was peaking at 40 degrees C with shivering. No definite aetiology could be identified in a local hospital. A bacterial infection had been suspected, but antibiotic therapy, at first with sulbactam-ampicillin and later with azithromycin, had no influence on the fever. Physical examination revealed an emaciated patient with fever (39 degrees C), pallor, and hepatosplenomegaly (spleen 9 cm and liver 5 cm palpable below the costal margin). No peripheral lymphadenopathy was present. The laboratory examinations are summarised in the table. Notably, a prominent increase of macrophages containing intracellular micro-organisms (figures 1 and 2) was seen in the bone marrow smears. The same micro-organisms were also identified within the Kupffer cells in liver biopsy.
ISSN:0032-5473
1469-0756
DOI:10.1136/pgmj.74.870.237