Gastrointestinal involvement in South American blastomycosis (paracoccidioidomycosis) . I. Clinical, radiological and histopathological study
Martinez, R.; Meneghelli, U.G.; Dantas, R.O.; Fiorillo, A.M.
Amb Revista da Associacao Medica Brasileira 25(1): 31-34
1979
ISSN/ISBN: 0102-843X PMID: 314128 Document Number: 66
Fifty-one patients with paracoccidioidomycosis were systematically investigated for gastrointestinal involvement. Digestive symptoms were prominent in 53% of the patients, abdominal pain, diarrhea and constipation being the commonest ones. Abnormal radiologic findings were found in the stomach or duodenum in 22% of the cases; in the small intestine, in 45%; in the colons, in 29% of the cases. In general, 63% of patients exhibited one or more roentgenographic changes along the digestive tube. The histologic study of jejunal mucosa obtained by suction biopsy disclosed mucosal edema and infiltration of mononuclear cells in some patients. The above cited alterations were more frequently found among the younger patients with the lymphatic form, as compared to the older subjects with the pulmonary lesions of the disease. Injuries of the digestive tube, mainly the small intestine, were seen in almost all patients with abdominal lymphatic involvement. It is proposed that the intestinal injury found in paracoccidioidomycosis is due to the abdominal lymphatic involvement causing initially edema and infiltration of the mucosa. A specific enteritis would result from the retrograde invasion of the mucosa by Paracoccidioides brasiliensis through the dilated lymphatics.
Document emailed within 1 workday
