Present characteristics of symptomatic amebiasis due to Entamoeba histolytica in the east-southeast area of Tokyo

Abstract

Admitted medical records, from January 1988 to December 1995, of 28 symptomatic amebic patients who lived in the east-southeast area of Tokyo were studied retrospectively, in order to find the present characteristics of symptomatic amebiasis due to Entamoeba histolytica in this area. Categorized by disease, there were 14 cases of colitis, 9 cases of liver abscess, 4 cases of colitis with liver abscess, and 1 case of liver abscess with brain abscess. Patients consisted of 26 Japanese males, 0 Japanese females, 1 non-Japanese male and 1 non-Japanese female. The mean age of colitis patients and liver abscess patients was 55.4 years old and 41.3 years old, respectively. The presumed place of contraction was Japan in 64% of the patients. Forty-eight percent of male patients indicated that they engaged in homosexual or bisexual practices, and 36% of male patients who denied such sexual practices or did not answer the question had no history of marriage. Positive rate of serum titre for Treponema pallidum hemagglutination test (TPHA) and human immunodeficiency virus antibody was 42.9% and 0%, respectively. Sixty-seven percent of TPHA-positive patients indicated that they engaged in male homosexual or bisexual practices. Zymodeme patterns of E. histolytica isolated from 4 colitis patients were XIV in 1 case and II in 3 cases. Symptomatic amebiasis in the east-southeast area of Tokyo is a disease which predominantly afflicts males, especially those in their middle age, and most patients contract the disease in Japan. The high rates of patients who engaged in male homosexual or bisexual practices and the high rates of patients with positive TPHA suggest that amebiasis is likely to be sexually transmitted disease in homosexual and bisexual men in the east-southeast area of Tokyo, and zymodeme II may be the predominant type in symptomatic amebic colitis in this area.

Alcohol Consumption, Hepatic Iron Load and the Risk of Amoebic Liver Abscess: A Case-control Study

“…In the present study, the iron score in the three nonALAcontrol females was 1, 0, and 0, respectively, as compared to a score of 5 in the lone female patient of ALA.This low iron, which is unsuitable for the growth of E. histolytica, might act as a protective factor against the invasion of E. histolytica in such females. This negative predilection of ALAfor females correlates well with previous reports that concur with the low incidence of ALAin young females (9,(17)(18)(19)(20). Other low iron states like pregnancy, infancy, young adolescence and elderly age group (24) and the low incidence of ALAseen in these groups in various studies (9,(17)(18)(19)(20)25) further lends support to the protective role of low iron in ALA. Iron stores in the body are normally maintained in the liver (26).…”

“…This negative predilection of ALAfor females correlates well with previous reports that concur with the low incidence of ALAin young females (9,(17)(18)(19)(20). Other low iron states like pregnancy, infancy, young adolescence and elderly age group (24) and the low incidence of ALAseen in these groups in various studies (9,(17)(18)(19)(20)25) further lends support to the protective role of low iron in ALA. Iron stores in the body are normally maintained in the liver (26). In a study by Bothwell et al (27) in 1984, hepatic iron levels amongBlack subjects with amoebiasis were studied.…”

“…The causal relationship between alcohol and liver abscess was first reported way back in 1874 by Jimenez (21), when he made an observation that a hepatic abscess occurred most often after 'disorderly meals' and 'large alcohol intake'. Since then a numberof studies have confirmed the high occurrence of ALAin chronic alcoholics (6)(7)(8)(9)(17)(18)(19)(20). In the present study also, most cases of ALAwere seen amongalcoholics.…”

Amebiasis in Japanese Homosexual Men with Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection.

“…Previous reports have shown many invasive amebiasis in Japanese homosexual men (10)(11)(12). These results indicate that E. hystolytica is not always detected as non-pathogenic colonization and homosexual behavior is one of the risk factors of amebiasis in Japan.…”

Entamoeba histolytica

“…In fact, in Turkey and in Japan, males were found more affected than females (Ohnishi and Murata, 1997;Ozyurt et al, 2007). On the other hand, other studies conducted in Turkey (Ozgumus and Efe, 2007) and in Pakistan (Ejaz et al, 2011) showed a prevalent and significant female infection.…”