Jaundice in pediatric visceral leishmaniasis (kala-azar)pa-tients

摘要

Objective:Visceral leishmaniasis (Kala-azar)is endemic in many countries including Bangladesh.Clinical presentation of visceral leishmaniasis in children and adult may vary and at time may simulate many tropical and hepatobiliary diseases.Jaundice and ascites are not common in kala-azar patients.Methods:During the period of January 2005 to December 2006,all the records of the confirmed kala-azar patients presented with jaundice were included in this study.Kala-azar was confirmed by serology test ICT (Immuno Chromatography) and Bone Marrow study.Results:Total 12 kala-azar patients were encountered during this period.Among these twelve cases,presenting features were jaundice (7),splenomegaly (12),hepatomegaly (11)and asci-tes (4).Initial clinical diagnosis of chronic liver disease (CLD)was made in (5),Congenital hemolytic a-naemia in (1)and kala-azar in rest of the patients (6).Common leucopenia and relative lymphocytosis was not observed in any patients.Conclusion:Kala-azar may present with various clinical manifestation in chil-dren and adult.Jaundice can be considered to be a common manifestation particularly in pediatric kala-azar patients.Otherwise,it may mislead to another diagnosis if it is taken as a rare feature in kala-azar.