Cancer Care Centre, Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre, Moshi, United Republic of Tanzania.
Department of Pathology, Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre, Moshi, United Republic of Tanzania.
PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2021 Jan 14;15(1):e0008925. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0008925. eCollection 2021 Jan.
A 20-year-old man from Simanjiro district in northern Tanzania presented with a 3-year history of splenomegaly, fatigue, cachexia, skin maculae, and recent onset of watery diarrhea at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC) in Northern Tanzania. Due to laboratory findings of pancytopenia, diagnostic workup included bone marrow aspiration cytology and biopsy. Although the rapid test (IT LEISH, rK39 RDT) was negative, blood smear showed amastigote forms of leishmaniasis in macrophages. Repeat bone marrow aspiration and PCR eventually confirmed visceral leishmaniasis (VL). The patient denied travel to known endemic areas of VL. Treatment was initiated with Amphotericin B, but the patient died on the fourth day of treatment from respiratory insufficiency. An autopsy revealed massive organ manifestations of VL. This is the first reported autochthonous case of VL in Tanzania. Clark and colleagues detected the vector Phlebotomus martini in Northern Tanzania in 2013, in a region bordering the district of our patient. The negative rapid test draws attention to the fact that sensitivity and specificity were found to be low in East African VL patients as displayed earlier by a Kenyan study. Therefore, tissue samples (spleen or bone marrow) remain necessary for diagnosis. The variety of symptoms in this presented case was remarkable, including the occurrence of post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL) and VL at the same time. This has been described in East African VL cases before as well as the occurrence of chronic diarrhea. An elongated undiagnosed period likely led to a mixed clinical picture that included hepato-splenomegaly, PKDL, cachexia, and diarrhea.
一位来自坦桑尼亚北部 Simanjiro 区的 20 岁男性,因脾肿大、疲劳、恶病质、皮肤斑点和最近出现水样腹泻,于坦桑尼亚北部的 Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC)就诊。由于实验室检查发现全血细胞减少,因此进行了诊断性检查,包括骨髓抽吸细胞学和活检。虽然快速检测(IT LEISH,rK39 RDT)为阴性,但血涂片显示巨噬细胞中有利什曼原虫的无鞭毛体形式。重复骨髓抽吸和 PCR 最终证实为内脏利什曼病(VL)。该患者否认前往 VL 的已知流行地区旅行。给予两性霉素 B 治疗,但患者在治疗的第四天因呼吸功能不全而死亡。尸检显示 VL 有大量器官表现。这是坦桑尼亚首例报道的本土 VL 病例。Clark 及其同事于 2013 年在坦桑尼亚北部检测到了 Phlebotomus martini 这种 Vector,该地区与我们患者所在的区接壤。快速检测呈阴性提醒人们注意到,正如肯尼亚的一项研究早些时候显示的那样,东非 VL 患者的敏感性和特异性较低。因此,仍然需要组织样本(脾脏或骨髓)进行诊断。本例患者的症状多种多样,包括同时发生的黑热病后皮肤利什曼病(PKDL)和 VL。这种情况以前在东非 VL 病例中以及慢性腹泻中都有描述。由于诊断不明的时间延长,可能导致包括肝脾肿大、PKDL、恶病质和腹泻在内的混合临床症状。