Clinical manifestations of brucellosis in hospitalized patients in Beheshti Hospital of Kashan 1996-2003

Considering the high prevalance of brucellosis and lack of definite data about its situation in our district this study was conducted to update our in knowledse and determine the frequency of clinical manifestations of hospitalized brucellosis patients in Beheshti Hospital of Kashan University of Medical Sciences during 1996-2003 This descriptive study was carried on the existing data in medical records of 380 hospitalized patients with brucelosis in Beheshti Hospital of Kashan University of Medical Sciences (KAUMS). The subjects were the patients with symptoms compatible with brucellosis and wright titer≥1.160. Demographic, clinical and laboratory findings were extracted and the collected data analyzed. 59% of the patients were male and 41% female. Most of the patients (80=21%) were in the age range of 10-19. The most common chief complaint of the patients was fever (19. 2 %) followed by low back pain (14. 6 %). The most common general complaints were fever (75 %), arthralgia) 70 (%, sweating (59.7 %), anorexia (33.6 %), and weight loss (14.7 %). The wright, coombs wright, and 2 ME were positive in 94.8 %, 100 %, 92.2% of cases, respectively. Because of the high frequency of fever, low back pain and arthralgia in our patients, brucellosis must be considered in differential diagnosis of any prolonged febrile disease with low back pain and arthralgia. Wright test was positive in most of the patients (94.8%), so it can be used as a reliable and sensititve test for the diagnosis of brucellosis.