© 2003 Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine
SELF ASSESSMENT ANSWER
Uncommon cause of hepatosplenomegaly in an immunocompetent patient
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
The bone marrow was cellular with myeloid preponderance and a few atypical cells. Amastigotes of Leishmania donovani (LD bodies) were present with an average parasite density of 1–10 parasites per 10 oil immersion fields or 3+ (see fig 1, p 478; LD bodies are arrowed).1
The diagnosis is visceral leishmaniasis. Further tests include the aldehyde test and ELISA to document the presence of IgG antibodies against leishmania antigen in blood. Both these tests were positive in this patient. Other serological methods such as the indirect fluorescent antibody test and the direct agglutination test may also be used for the diagnosis.
The classical presentation of visceral leishmaniasis in immunocompetent individuals is that of high grade fever with hepatosplenomegaly in the setting of a visit to or residence in an endemic area. There were the two atypical features in this patient. Firstly, he lived in a non-endemic zone and had no
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
Relevant Article
- Uncommon cause of hepatosplenomegaly in an immunocompetent patient
- A Mohan, R Guleria, J C Samantaray, A Kumar Dutta, S Tandon, and J N Pande
Postgrad. Med. J. 2003 79: 478.[Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
Topic Collections
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
