Abstract

MOREJON GARCIA, Moisés  and  SALUP DIAZ, Rosa R. Kala-azar. Study of 18 patients in Brazil. Rev Cubana Med Gen Integr [online]. 2006, vol.22, n.2. ISSN 0864-2125.

18 patients admitted with kala-azar were studied. There was a higher incidence at pediatric age and among males (61 %). The most marked symptoms that were observed in 100 % of the patients were: prolonged fever and pallor, accompanied with splenomegalia, and anemia. Other clinical-humoral elements were: cough (44 %), hepatomegalia and abdominal distension (39 %), icterus, oedema, and diarrhea (17 %), ascites, epistaxis, petechiae, and bleedings (11 %), leukopenia (94 %), with lymphocytes (100 %), and thrombocytopenia (28 %). Splenic puncture was performed to seek Leishmania in 18 patients. It was positive in 15 of them (85 %). One of the negative patients tested positive on undergoing medullary puncture. The complications observed were respiratory (17 %) and hemorrhagic infections (11 %). Fever, anemia, and splenomegalia were predominant clinical elements. The satisfactory evolution of all our cases confirmed the effectiveness of glucantime as an elective therapy.

Keywords : Kala-azar; leishmaniasis; glucantime; splenomegalia.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )