Clinical manifestations, complications, and treatment of brucellosis: evaluation of 72 cases.

OBJECTIVE

Brucellosis is an important disease in developing countries. We aimed to determine the epidemiologic, clinical, and laboratory characteristics of brucellosis, which still has a high morbidity in Turkey.

METHODS

Seventy-two patients with brucellosis, monitored at our clinic from January 2004 to July 2010, were reviewed retrospectively.

RESULTS

The average age was determined to be 44.8 ± 18 years, and 40 of the patients were female (55.6%). The most frequent transmission route was the use of raw milk and dairy products, in 45 of the patients (62.5%). The most frequent complaints were joint pain, high fever, weakness, low back pain, and gastrointestinal symptoms, whereas the most frequent physical examination findings were fever, osteoarticular involvement, splenomegaly, hepatomegaly, and lymphadenopathy. All of the patients were positive for Rose Bengal testing. The standard tube agglutination titer was 1/160 or higher in 64 (88.9%) patients. Brucella melitensis was isolated from blood cultures of 13 (18.1%) patients and bone marrow cultures of 7 (9.7%) patients. Complications of sacroiliitis in 6 (8.3%), spondylodiscitis in 4 (5.6%), endocarditis in 2 (2.8%), neurobrucellosis in 1 (1.4%), and epididymo-orchitis in 1 (1.4%) of the patients were observed.

CONCLUSIONS

Brucellosis has various clinical presentations. It should be included in the differential diagnosis of high fever and joint pains in endemic countries.