title: Clinical profile of brucellosis from a tertiary care center in southern India.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To highlight the spectrum of clinical manifestations, labs, complications, treatment and outcome of brucellosis.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective study was conducted in Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University, Karnataka, India which included 68 confirmed cases of brucellosis from January 2006- April 2010. Diagnosis of brucellosis was made by culturing the sera/body fluids by standard BACTEC method (or) by testing the sera for Brucella agglutinins using the standard agglutination test (SAT). A titer of 1:320 or more was considered as significant. SPSS 16 was used for statistical analysis and Microsoft Excel for graphical representation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 68 patients, 46 (68%) were male and 22 (32%) were female patients with age distribution of 9-75 years. Forty four (64.7%) had history of contact with unpasteurized dairy products or infected animals. Symptoms included fever (68, 100%), myalgia (21, 31%), musculoskeletal symptoms (23, 34%), headache (16, 24%), gastrointestinal symptoms (19, 28%) and altered sensorium (3, 4%). Co-morbidities and associations included HIV positivity (2, 3%), type 2 diabetes mellitus (13, 19%), steroid therapy (3, 4%) and HBsAg positivity (8, 12%). Ten (15%) patients had cervical lymphadenopathy, 4(6%) had splenic enlargement, 6 (7%) had hepatomegaly, 19 (28%) had hepatosplenomegaly and 2(3%) got meningeal signs. Anaemia was observed in 39 (57.3%) cases, high erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) was present in 55 (80.8%) cases, leucocytosis in 10(14.7%), leucopenia in 10(14.7%), thrombocytopenia in 23 (33.82%) and thrombocytosis in 2 (2.94%) cases.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In countries like India, where brucellosis and tuberculosis are endemic; rapid, sensitive and highly specific diagnostic methods are required to make early diagnosis and prevent resistance as there is an overlap in therapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Vishwanath
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Sathyanarayanan
authors.forename: Abdul
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Razak
authors.forename: Kavitha
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Saravu
authors.forename: Shastry Barkur
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Ananthakrishna
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mukhyprana Prabhu
authors.forename: K E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Vandana
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002006:Brucellosis / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies