All issues > Volume 27(3); 1984

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1984;27(3):229-236. Published online March 31, 1984.

Liver Involvement in Childhood Typhoid and Paratyphoid fever.

Yong Hoon Park, Yun Ok Kim, Ja Hoon Koo, Doo Hong Ahn

¹Department of Pediatric, Kyungpook National University School of Medicine, Taegu, Korea

Abstract

A clinical observation was done on 39 children with typhoid and paratyphoid fever, who had been admitted to the Pediatric department of Kyungpook National University Hospital, from January 1981 to December 1982. Diagnosis was established by positive serologic test and/or positive bacteriologic culture. Liver involvement as evidenced by abnormal liver function tests, hepatomegaly and hepatic tenderness was noted in 46.2%(18 out of 39 cases). Age group of 6 to 10 years showed most frequent involvement of liver (43.6%), compared to other age groups(p<0.05), and by unknown reason, cases occuring during fall season exhibited liver involvement more frequently, in 13 out of 14 cases (p<0.005). Mean values of liver enzymes in the group with liver involvement were; SGOT, 104.2 unit, and SGPT, 76.5 unit. Clinical symptoms and physical findings showed no difference between two groups with and without liver involvement. Also, there was no difference in frequency of liver involvement between culture-proven cases of typhoid and paratyphoid fever. Cases with liver involvement showed prolonged days to defervescence with therapy; it was over 5 days in 13 out of 18 cases (72.2%), compared to 7 out of 21 cases (33.3%) without liver involvement.

Keywords :Typhoid fever; paratyphoid fever; hepatitis; typhoid hepatitis