Evaluation of Brucellosis Patients Followed-up in a Tertiary Hospital

Introduction and Objective

Brucellosis is a zoonotic infection seen as an endemic in Turkey and is a public health problem at the same time. The objective of this study was to evaluate demographic/epidemiologic, clinic, laboratory features, complications and treatments in brucellosis patients followed-up in our clinic.

Material & Methods

In this study, features of patients followed-up between 01/01/2010 and 31/12/2018 in our clinic were retrospectively evaluated. Descriptive data were expressed as number and percentage. Categorical variables were analyzed with Chi-square test and numerical variables with Student’s t test.

Results

Of the total of 365 brucellosis patients, 159 (43.56%) were female and 206 (56.44%) were male. The mean age of the patients was 45.9±14.51 (18-82) years. The most common time of presentation was summer season with 137 (37.5%) patients. The most common transmission route of the disease was a history of animal husbandry with 252 (69%) patients. Of all cases 168 (46%) were acute, 96 (26.3%) were subacute, and 101 (27.7%) were chronic brucellosis. The most common complaint of the patients was fatigue in 302 (82.7%) patients with being higher in acute brucellosis (p=0.0015). Anemia was found in 53 (33.3%) male and 114 (55.3%) female patients with being significantly higher in female patients (p=0.0283). Leukopenia was found in 7.9%, leukocytosis in 16.2%, thrombocytopenia in 9.6%, neutropenia in 4.1%, neutrophilia in 9% and lymphomonocytosis in 12% of the patients. Wright agglutination test was performed in 26 (7.1%) and brucella immunocapture agglutination test in 361 (98.9%) patients and all results were positive. Of all patients, 172 (47.1%) developed complications with spondylodiscitis being the most commonly found in 58 (15.9%) patients. Sixty-one (31.8%) of patients developed relapse.

Conclusion: Since brucellosis is endemic in our country, it should be considered in presumed diagnosis of patients presenting with complaints such as fatigue, articular pain and fever.