Amebic hepatitis; absence of diffuse lesions at autopsy and in biopsies.

Abstract

The clinical syndrome of amebic hepatitis consists of hepatomegaly, hepatic tenderness, slight to moderate fever, moderate leucocytosis, and laboratory evidence of hepatic dysfunction in a patient with a history of intestinal amebiasis.* An important feature is response to specific antiamebic therapy. The lesion in the liver is assumed to be a diffuse hepatitis caused by Endamoeba histolytica in contrast to the classic localized amebic abscess. The purpose of this paper is to report the absence of specific diffuse hepatic lesions in (I) a large series of autopsies from an area where the incidence of intestinal amebiasis is moderately high; (II) 148 persons who died of amebiasis; (III) 50 patients with the clinical pattern of diffuse amebic hepatitis who were subjected to liver biopsy. DEFINITIONS The following definitions will be employed to distinguish terms which have been used synonymously and which may represent different entities. Amebic Abscess of Liver: A localized