Produção Nacional
Revisado por pares
Subclinical form of the American visceral leishmaniasis
2004; Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Ministério da Saúde; Volume: 99; Issue: 8 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1590/s0074-02762004000800018
ISSN1678-8060
AutoresMônica Elinor Alves Gama, Jackson Maurício Lopes Costa, Cláudia Maria de Castro Gomes, Carlos Eduardo Pereira Corbett,
Tópico(s)Trypanosoma species research and implications
ResumoThe subclinical form of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) shows nonspecific clinical manifestations, with difficulties being frequently met in its clinical characterization and diagnostic confirmation. Thus, the objective of the present study was to define the clinical-laboratory profile of this clinical form. A cohort study was conducted in the state of Maranhão, Brazil, from January/1998 to December/2000, with monthly follow-up of 784 children aged 0-5 years. Based on the clinical-laboratory parameters reported in the literature, four categories were established, with the children being classified (according to their clinical-evolutive behavior) as asymptomatic (N = 144), as having the subclinical form (N = 33) or the acute form (N = 12) or as subjects "without VL" (N = 595). Multiple discriminant analysis demonstrated that the combination of fever, hepatomegaly, hyperglobulinemia, and increased blood sedimentation rate (BSR) can predict the subclinical form of VL as long as it is not associated with splenomegaly or leukopenia. Subjects with the subclinical form did not show prolonged or intermittent evolution or progression to the acute form of VL. Subclinical cases have a profile differing from the remaining clinical forms of VL, being best characterized by the combination of fever, hepatomegaly, hyperglobulinemia, and increased BSR.
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