[Acute psychosis following treatment with chloroquine for a primo-invasion of Plasmodium vivax malaria].
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to F Klotz.
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INTRODUCTION: Infection with Histoplasma capsulatum (Hc) is a rare importing disease in metropolitan France, the most often minor but sometimes letal in its spread form. EXEGESIS: A 58 years old French man, HIV seronegative, was admitted for an alteration of its general condition, disorder and buccal ulcerations. He had a prostate cancer history and came back in France after 17 years in Central Africa. The imaging showed numerous cerebral nodes, a bilateral adrenal tumor, and pulmonary calcifications. Histoplasmosis diagnosis has been done after neurosurgical cerebral biopsy which displayed characteristic Hc. The sick man died 4 months later with multivisceral failures, in spite of amphotericine B treatment followed by oral then intraveinous itraconazole. CONCLUSION: Even in an old tropical residence, ones can be able to conjure up a deep exotic fungal infection, and most specifically Hc histoplasmosis, in front of meaningful multivisceral lesions. Disseminated histoplasmosis (HD) with neurological location is misleading, mimicking tuberculosis or cancer. In order to obtain formal mycological evidence, ones have to make adapted biopsies. Antifungal agents must take into account medicinal interaction. Therefore, prognosis is bad, according to inoculum, immunodeficiency, age of disease and diagnosis delay.
In some regions of Africa, Middle-east and Asia, portal hypertension is caused most frequently by bilharziasis far more than by post-hepatic or alcoholic cirrhosis. All schistosomiasis induce hepatic affection, consequence of the eggs embolization in the vessels endings of the portal system, but only Schistosoma mansoni and Asian bilharziasis mainly the Schistosoma japonicum are the cause of severe sequelar fibrosis responsible for a particular portal hypertension. This portal hypertension is original anatomopathologically and physiopathologically. The perivascular concentric fibrosis localised in the portal space is an anatomopathological sequela of bilharzious granulomas outlining embolized eggs. This "stem pipe" aspect constitutes a presinusoidal block inducing a severe portal hypertension without hepatic lobule affection. The recent medical advances regarding this pathology lie in the understanding of the responsible immune mechanisms, the diagnosis and follow-up thanks to ecographic codification of lesions, the complications treatment through varix endoscopic ligature or portal vein derivation. Treatment by praziquantel remains justified together with health education, improving living standard and hopes placed in the future vaccination campaigns associated with medical treatment in endemic areas.
UNLABELLED: Since the Diama dam on the Senegal river became operative in 1986, an exceptional outbreak of intestinal schistosomiasis occurred in northern Senegal. This is the first case report from this region of a splenorenal derivation performed in Dakar to cure decompensated portal hypertension due to Schistosoma mansoni. CASE REPORT: In June 1998, a 16-year old boy, native from Richard-Toll in the Senegal River Basin, was admitted to the paediatric department of Hôpital Principal, Dakar, Senegal, with a 3 years of recurrent hematemesis. Blood transfusions were required despite propranolol and multiple oesophageal varices sclerotherapies. On admission he weighed 33 kg and was noted to have pallor and moderate hepatosplenomegaly. Lab work included normal liver function tests, a Hgb of 58 mg/L, negative HBs antigen, and high titers of schistosomiasis antibodies (> 1/2000 by the hemagglutination method). Ultrasound revealed an homogeneously enlarged liver, periportal fibrosis and spleen with a grade 2 portal hypertension (WHO score). Endoscopy showed stage 3 oesophageal varices with red spots but no active haemorrhage. After transfusions, a Warren distal splenorenal anastomosis was performed. During the operation, a liver biopsy was obtained, showing periportal fibrosis and schistosomiasis granulomas. The patient was discharged without complication. After 4 years he remains free of any recurrence of his upper gastrointestinal haemorrhage and haemoglobin rate is normal. COMMENTS: Before the inauguration of the dam in 1986, S. mansoni infection was never reported from the Senegal River Basin. But as early as 1988, the first cases of intestinal schistosomiasis began to show up. A few years later, this focus had dramatically extended and in 1991 the first cases of hepatic fibrosis were detected in ultrasonography surveys. The present case involves the first patient from northern Senegal who required surgery for haemorrhagic complications of schistosomiasis induced by liver disease. Considering the high prevalence in this area, and the difficulties of medical management, the need for porto-systemic derivations is likely to rise. These operations are difficult and require specially trained surgeons. They have been largely unavailable in Senegal until now. This case report, involving a child only 10 years after the beginning of the epidemic, underlines the acute need for improving both prevention and medical treatment in order to avoid progression to clinical stages of hepatic schistosomiasis where surgery is unavoidable. In addition, the training of local surgical teams able to deal with these complications is urgently needed in Senegal.
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IMPACT OF PLASMODIUM VIVAX WORLDWIDE: Plasmodium vivax is the most widespread malanal agent in the world. Unlike Plasmodium falciparum, P. vivax can cause early or late recurrence and is not fatal (benign tertian malaria). EMERGENCE OF RESISTANT STRAINS: P. vivax strains resistant to chloroquine, then primaquine, have emerged over the last decade, creating the need for a new therapeutic strategy. TREATMENT OF PRIMARY DISEASE: Generally, chloroquine is the first intention treatment, excepting patients who also have P. falciparum infection or a strain with suspected resistance to chloroquine. Mefloquine, quinine and halofantrine are also logical alternatives. TREATMENT OF RECURRENT DISEASE: A schizonticidal agent should be given followed by a hypnozoitocidal agent, primaquine. Primaquine dosage should now be raised or adjusted to the patient's weight. THERAPEUTIC PERSPECTIVES: Tafenoquine, delayed-release amino-8-quinoleine, is a potential alternative for primaquine for the treatment of recurrences. Studies are also in progress to evaluate the role of primaquine as a prophylaxic agent.
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The authors relate an observation taken on a 17 year-old African girl for a pleural and pericardial infusion that has resisted the treatment of tuberculosis with no HIV infection. Subsequent echocardiographies revealed the quick formation of an infiltration process inside the left ventricle. Death occurred before pericardial histopathology indicated a cardiac T tell non-hodgkin malignant lymphoma. In west Africa, this is undoubtedly the first histologically demonstrated case in which HIV and HTLV infections could facilitate the appearance of that exceptional type of cardiac neoplasm.
In Black Africa, the role of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in the onset of chronic hepatic disease is unclear. This is particularly true in Senegal where the prevalence of HCV is moderate. To gain insight into this question, a case-control study including 73 patients and 73 controls was carried out at Principal Hospital in Dakar in 1995. The patients included in this study presented chronic hepatitis in 2 cases cirrhosis in 25 and hepatocellular carcinoma in 46. Patients and controls underwent serologic testing for HCV (ELISA screening test followed by 3rd generation ELISA test in case of positive results and confirmation by immunoblot) with determination of HCV serotype using the immunoenzymatic method. Testing also included research for infection by hepatitis B virus and for anti-delta antibodies. Anti-HCV antibodies were detected in two patients (3 p. 100) and serology was suspicious in two others. Serotype 2 was detected in one of these patients. No positive results were recorded in controls. Fifty-four patients (74 p. 100) and 15 controls (21 p. 100) presented the HBs antigen including 13 patients (24 p. 100) and I control (7 p. 100) with anti-delta antibodies. This study shows that HCV currently plays a minor role in the onset of hepatic disease in hospitalized patients in Senegal. It also confirms the predominant role of hepatitis B and complicating effect of the delta hepatitis virus. These findings are compared with reported data for Black African countries. The impact of HCV appears to be lower in Senegal than in central Africa.
A major challenge for successful treatment of Plasmodium vivax malaria is prevention of recurrence due to activation of dormant intrahepatic parasitic forms called hypnozoits. As a result of strain variability, recurrences are unpredictable and can occur months or even years after initial infection. Prevention requires elimination of both erythrocytic and hepatic parasite forms by combined use of chloroquine and primaquine. Primaquine is the only commercially available drug against hypnozoits. Several factors must be taken into account in planning treatment regimens. One factor is drug resistance of vivax strains, which as observed for Plasmodium falciparum strains is variable between geographical areas. Another factor is potential co-infection by Plasmodium vivax and falciparum, which is increasingly common. For optimal efficacy, treatment regimens must be adjusted with regard to dosage of primaquine and association with halofantrine, mefloquine or other new antimalarial agents. No regimen completely rules out the risk of recurrence.
SETTING: Two teaching hospitals in Dakar, Senegal, a West African country with a low prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether patients with HIV-associated pulmonary tuberculosis have fewer acid-fast bacilli (AFB) in their sputum as assessed by routine microscopy, and to correlate the findings with systematically obtained clinical, radiographic and laboratory variables. DESIGN: Prospective study from November 1995 to October 1996 of 450 consecutive patients diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis. RESULTS: Tuberculosis was diagnosed in 380 patients (84.4%) by positive bacteriology, in 61 (13.6%) by a favorable response to anti-tuberculosis chemotherapy, and in nine (2.0%) by the presence of a miliary radiographic pattern. Forty (8.9%) patients were HIV-seropositive. AFB-negative smears were found in 14/40 (35.0%) of the HIV-seropositive patients with pulmonary tuberculosis compared with 71/410 (17.3%) of the seronegative patients (risk ratio [RR] = 2.02, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.26-3.24, P = 0.01). Multivariate analysis revealed that AFB smear negativity was associated with absence of cavitation (P = 0.002), lack of cough (P = 0.005), the presence of HIV seropositivity (P = 0.02), a CD4+ cell count above 200/mm3 (P = 0.02), and age over 40 years (P = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS: Compared with HIV-seronegative patients with pulmonary tuberculosis, seropositive patients in Dakar, Senegal, are more likely to have negative sputum-AFB smears. This phenomenon has now been observed in seven of eight sub-Saharan African countries with varying HIV seroprevalence from which reports are available.
Fulminant herpes simplex viral hepatitis is uncommon in immunocompetent subjects. A 24-year-old woman presenting hepatomegaly with fever was hospitalized after returning from a trip to southern Africa. The patient was neither pregnant nor immunocompromised. Because of recent tropical travel, differential diagnosis included alphabetic hepatotropic virus infection, yellow fever, African hemorrhagic fever, and arbovirus infection. After ruling out other common viral etiologies, a definitive diagnosis of herpes simplex viral infection was made on the basis of clinical and laboratory findings showing high fever, leukopenia, and thrombopenia; of histological examination of the native liver after transplantation showing non-inflammatory confluent focal hemorrhagic necrosis; and on serologic tests demonstrating seroconversion for herpes simplex virus type 2. Outcome after transplantation was rapidly fatal but the death was not directly related to infection. The most likely etiology of fulminant hepatitis in a young woman returning from travel in a tropical area is hepatitis virus B or hepatitis virus E in cases involving pregnancy. However herpes simplex virus should be included in differential diagnosis even in immunocompetent subjects.
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While the well-documented life expectancy of patients with homozygous sickle cell anemia (SS) is 40 years in industrialized countries, this question remains unanswered in black Africa. The purpose of this prospective study was to establish the clinical phenotype for Senegal. A severity score based on 12 clinical, laboratory, radiological, and prognostic findings was calculated and correlated with age and hemoglobin F level. A total of 40 SS homozygotes over 15 years of age (mean age: 25 years) were hospitalized between January 1996 and January 1998 at the Principal Hospital in Dakar. The most common events requiring hospitalization were vasoocclusive phenomena (n = 26) but the incidence of these complications declined significantly with age (p < 0.05). The mean hemoglobin level was 4.4 mmol/l and the mean hemoglobin F level was 6.2 p. 100. The incidence of visceral involvement was low (lithiasic vesicules in 17 cases, necrosis of the head of the femur in 7, and abnormal cardiac ultrasound findings in 10). Only one patient died during the study. No correlation was found between severity score and either age or hemoglobin F level. These findings confirm that the phenotype is less severe in Senegal. However they also show that organ damage is common by the time that patients reach adulthood and thus underline the need for prevention and education to improve survival of SS homozygotes in Senegal.