BLOOD MORPHOLOGY IN PATIENTS SUFFERING FROM ENTERIC FEVER.

Dr. Mohammad Sajjad*

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To study peripheral blood morphology in patients suffering from enteric fever in Pathology Deptt, Khalifa Gul Nawaz Teaching Hospital Bannu. Khyber Pakhtun Khwa. Pakistan. This was one year study from January 2015 to December 2015. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This descriptive cases series study in which total of 96 enteric fever patients were included. All these patients were suffering enteric fever, diagnosis was made on the basis of widal test with titre ≥1/320 in association with clinical findings. Venous blood was collected in EDTA tubes and plain tubes from all these patients and used for complete blood counts performed by manual method using Sahli’s hemoglobinometer and Neubar’s chamber as well as hematology analyzer cell dyne/ruby. The plain tube blood was used for widal tests. RESULTS: A total of 96 patients were enrolled in this study. The age range was from 12-55 years with mean age of 24.22±10.2 years. Male were 57 and female were 39, male to female ratio was 1.46:1. Anemia was found in 65 (67.70%) cases followed by thrombocytopenia 33 (34.37%) cases, leukocytosis in 13 (13.54%) cases and leucopenia in 7 (7.29%) cases. Most of the patients were in the age range of 21-30 years 58 (60.41%) followed by 31-40 years 23 (23.95%). In 65 anemic patients the hemoglobin level was from 4.5 gm/dl to 10.0 gm/dl, where as in 33 thrombocytopenic patients the range of thrombocytopenia was from 35,000 to 145,000 /cmm and in 13 leucocytosis cases the total leukocyte count range was from 13500 to 19800/cmm and in 7 cases of leucopenia the total leukocyte count range was from 1300 to 3700/cmm. In three (3.12%) cases pancytopenia was present. CONCLUSION: Patients suffering from enteric fever may develop cytopenias leading to significant morbidity and mortality if not diagnosed early in time and treated properly.

Keywords: Enteric fever. Salmonella Typhi. Widal test. Cytopenias.