Frequency of Toxocariasis among Patients Clinically Suspected to Have Visceral Toxocariasis: A Retrospective Descriptive Study in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Introduction . Human toxocariasis is caused by several species of the nematode Toxocara . Two common clinical syndromes are ocular and visceral larva migrans. Objectives . To determine the Toxocara antibody positivity in clinically suspected VLM patients and to describe demographic factors and clinical manifestations of seropositive patients. Methods . 522 clinically suspected patients were studied between 1993 and 2014. Relevant data was gathered from referral letters. Serum samples were subjected to Toxocara antigen ELISA . Results . Overall, seropositivity was 50.2% (262), of which 109 (40.8%) were positive at high level of Toxocara antibody carriage and 153 (58.4%) were positive at low levels. The seropositives ranged from 3 months to 70 years (mean = 7.8). Younger age group had higher levels of seropositivity and it was statistically significant. Majority of children under 5 years were seropositive (47.7%,<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M1"><mml:mi>n</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">125</mml:mn></mml:math>). Seropositivity was common in males (55.3%,<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M2"><mml:mi>n</mml:mi><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn fontstyle="italic">145</mml:mn></mml:math>). Clinical manifestations of seropositives include lymphadenopathy (24.1%) skin rash (22.5%), dyspnoea (21.7%), fever (21%), hepatosplenomegaly (9.2%), and abdominal pain (3.8%). 197 (75.2%) seropositive cases had eosinophilia. These symptoms were not statistically significant. Conclusions . This study confirms toxocariasis as an important cause of childhood ill health identifying common clinical symptoms recommending preventive measures to limit transmission.