Sporadic amoebic liver abscess in the North Island
Ghose, R.
New Zealand Medical Journal 111(1061): 83
1998
ISSN/ISBN: 0028-8446 PMID: 9549561 Document Number: 487746
The case is reported of a 41-year-old Chinese immigrant to New Zealand who returned to Hong Kong and China for a 2-month visit in 1990. He presented with pyrexia and aching joints and muscles, vague abdominal pain, eosinophilia and slightly abnormal liver function. He was hepatitis B positive. Ultrasonography revealed a 68 mm mass in the right lobe of the liver. Indirect haemagglutination was strongly positive for Entamoeba histolytica with a titre of 1:4096. The patient was successfully treated with metronidazole (800 mg 8 hourly) and the liver mass was reduced to 20 mm within 1 week of commencing treatment. This case is unusual in that the incubation period for amoebiasis was at least 7 years.