Retrospective analysis of clinical diagnosis of 21 cases of human ehrlichiosis
10.3760/cma.j.issn.1000-6680.2010.05.006
- VernacularTitle:21例人埃里希体病临床诊断的回顾性分析
- Author:
Jin TIAN
;
Yongwen HE
;
Ping WEI
;
Wei LI
;
Shenghua JIE
;
Jinghong YAO
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- Keywords:
Ehrlichiosis;
Tick-borne diseases;
Doxycycline;
Prognosis
- From:
Chinese Journal of Infectious Diseases
2010;28(5):278-281
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
Objective To investigate epidemiological and clinical features of human ehrlichiosis.Methods The epidemiological, clinical, laboratory, therapeutic and prognostic data of 21 clinically diagnosed cases of human ehrlichiosis were retrospectively analyzed. Results The epidemic regions where the ticks' activity was high located at the boundary between Hubei and Henan Provinces. All cases were farmers. The median age was 50 years ranged from 19 to 69 years. The male female ratio evident history of tick bite 1 week before the onset. The common symptoms included fever, diarrhea,cough, nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain and expectoration. The complications included hemorrhage, toxic encephalopathy, acute renal insufficiency, secondary infection and respiratory failure. The common abnormalities of routine lab data were thrombocytopenia, hypoeosinophilia,elevated lactate dehydrogenase, creatine kinase and aminotransferases, leucopenia and proteinuria.Nine cases were tested with peripheral blood smear and intracytoplasmic inclusions in neutrophils were found in one case. Seventeen cases were tested with serological assay and antibodies against Ehrlichia were positive in five cases. After doxycycline, symptomatic and supportive treatments, 14 cases were recovered and seven died. The average age of the deaths was 56 years. Conclusions Human ehrlichiosis is an acute tick-borne zoonosis and multiorgan could be involved. The older cases prone to develop complications and the prognosis is poor.
