We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Assessment of Variation in Clinical Presentation of Visceral Leishmaniasis Among Patients Attending the Tropical Diseases Teaching Hospital in Sudan.
- Authors
Altom Mohammed Ahmed, Hammam Abdalrhman; Ahmed Musa, Ahmed Ali; Sayed Sayedahmed, Ahmed Mahmoud; Jabralseed Mohammed, Shiraz Bashir; Mohamed Ahmed, Ehssan Farouk; Elageb Mohamed, Anas Badreldeen; Ahmed Nail, Abdelsalam Mohamed
- Abstract
Background: Visceral leishmaniasis (also known as Kala-azar) is a systemic parasitic infection with many clinical presentations. The present study assesses the variation in presentations among patients who attended the Tropical Diseases Teaching Hospital (TDTH) in Khartoum, Sudan. Methods: This analytical cross-sectional, hospital-based study was conducted at the TDTH between November 2019 and September 2020. Medical records of patients who presented at the TDTH were reviewed using a structured data extraction checklist. The Chi-square test was used to determine the associations between sociodemographic and clinical presentations of patients. P-value < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: Out of 195 patients, 79.5% were male and 48.2% were <31 years old. Fever was the main clinical presentation (90.2%) while 53.3% presented with weight loss and 72.3% and 39% presented, respectively, with splenomegaly and hepatomegaly. HIV was detected in 4.6% of the patients. RK39 was the main diagnostic test. We found a significant association between the abdominal distention and the age of the patients (P < 0.05) – age groups 11–20 and 41–50 years were more likely to present with abdominal distention than other age groups. Conclusion: There is no exact clinical presentation or routine laboratory findings that are pathognomonic for visceral leishmaniasis; therefore, it should be considered in the differential diagnosis of any patient with fever, weight loss, and abdominal distention, and among patients with HIV.
- Subjects
SUDAN; KHARTOUM (Sudan); VISCERAL leishmaniasis; SYMPTOMS; TEACHING hospitals; TROPICAL medicine; PARASITIC diseases
- Publication
Sudan Journal of Medical Sciences, 2022, Vol 17, Issue 3, p348
- ISSN
1858-5051
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.18502/sjms.v17i3.12110