Long-term outcome of asymptomatic liver hydatidosis
Section snippets
Population and Methods
Rio Negro province is situated at the northern border of Argentinian Patagonia, with an area of 203 013 km2 and a total population of 500 695 inhabitants, 20% of whom live in rural areas. In June 1984 and in November 1986, 1018 inhabitants of three rural towns in Rio Negro province (Ñorquinco, Comallo and Pilcaniyeu), located in an arid, semi-desert region of mountains and steppes, were invited to undergo an US and serological screening to detect abdominal localization of hydatid cysts. Lesions
Results
Of the 59 asymptomatic hydatid liver cyst carriers detected during the 1984–86 survey, 35 (59%) were men and the median age of the population was 32.7±10.2 years; three (5.1%) had died from non-hydatid-related causes, 11 (18.6%) had left the geographic area and could not be located, and 45 (76.3%) remained in their original residences (Fig. 1).
Twelve (26.76%) of the 45 available inhabitants could not be controlled as at the time of the study they were in rural areas which were difficult to
Discussion
Given the sparse population in the studied area, only slightly over half of the original 59 patients detected could be re-evaluated 10–12 years later. Despite the limited number of cases, the results of this study show that most untreated cases (75%) remain symptom-free for more than 10 years after diagnosis and, in over half, cyst size is unchanged. These findings support our previous investigations, employing US for mass screening, which disclosed an unexpectedly high prevalence of
Acknowledgements
We thank ADM S.A. for providing the US portable device and the videoprinter system.
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