Amebiasis Newsletter

Correspondence should be sent to:

Dr. C. Graham Clark, Department of Medical Parasitology, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London WC1E 7HT, England, G.B.

OR: Dra. Martha Espinosa Cantellano, Departamento de Patología Experimental, CINVESTAV- IPN, Aptdo. Postal 14-740, CP 07000 México D.F., México

On the first clinical diagnosis of pericardic rupture of an amebic liver abscess

Dr. Miguel F. Jiménez was probably the best mexican clinician of the XIX century. In his published lectures to the medical students of the School of Medicine (1) he refers to the increasing interest in the study of liver abscesses, which were a common disease at his time. The most important contribution of his publication, besides being the first one on the subject, is that he meticulously describes the symptomatology of the disease, deduced from his observation of 297 cases. He establishes the diagnostic bases and the exact prognosis, until emetine was introduced for the treatment of the disease. He was also a great pathologist, and although he did not identify the ameba as the causative agent of the abscess, his detailed descriptions of the chocolate-like material (different from the suppurative exudate from bacterial abscesses) obtained after liver puncture or in autopsy material, and the clinical course of the disease leave no doubt as to the amebic origin of these cases.

In a recent publication on original contributions to medicine from Mexico (2) I found a reference to the first clinical diagnosis of pericardic rupture of an amebic liver abscess. Since 1899 the international literature has mistakenly attributed this contribution to Gremillon (3). However, more than 40 years earlier, Dr. Miguel Jiménez (4) narrates that in 1856 a coachman in Mexico City arrived at his office complaining of severe upper abdominal pain and fever. Upon physical examination Dr. Jiménez found a "bulky mass" expanding from the central to the left upper abdominal region. He diagnosed liver abscess of the left lobe and ordered immediate hospitalization. Much to the custom of that time, when people believed more in herbs and teas to cure their illnesses, the distrustful coachman, afraid of the unknown but surely invasive treatment, refused to stay in the hospital. Five days later he returned complaining of precordial pain and difficult breathing. Dr. Jiménez did not hesitate in his diagnosis: pericardic rupture of the liver abscess. The unfortunate coachman did not survive this episode, but, since the diagnosis was confirmed during autopsy, he is still remembered in the first clinical report of pericardic rupture of an amebic liver abscess. (M.E.)

1. Jiménez MF (1856) Clínica médica. Lecciones dadas en la Escuela de Medicina de Mexico. Imprenta JM Murguia, Portal del Aguila de Oro, Mexico, pp. 75.

2. Quijano-Pitman F. (1996) Primicias médicas nacionales. Diagnóstico clínico de la perforación de un absceso hepático al pericardio. Gaceta Médica de México 132(1):84.

3. Gremillon E. Thesis, 1899. Cited by Schwarz E. In: Chirugie de Foie. O. Doin Ed. Paris, 1901.

4. Jiménez MF. (1857) Abscesos del hígado. Lecciones dadas por el doctor Jiménez en la Escuela de Medicina. La Unión Médica Mexicana II:10-105.

Seminar on Amebiasis

The XIII Seminario sobre Amibiasis will be held in Mexico City from the 29th to the 31st of January, 1997. A total of 114 abstracts have been received from 16 countries. They are currently being evaluated by the Organizing Committee, categorized by subject matter and assigned to either oral or poster presentation. Authors will be informed in the near future of the committee's decision and given instructions on preparation of their presentation. The issue of Archives of Medical Research containing the published abstracts will be available at the time of the Seminario.

Newsletter Update

Of the 149 individuals who had previously been receiving the Amebiasis Newsletter, 89 re-registered. In addition, seven new names have been received for addition to the Directory. It is expected that an updated directory will be available at the Seminar on Amebiasis in January for those who attend and it is also available from the editors upon request.

Recent Publications in Amebiasis

AboShehada, M.N. & Sallal, A.K.J. (1996) Preliminary studies on the bacterial and parasitic microflora and microfauna of domestic sewage in northern Jordan. Int. J. Envir. Health Res. 6: 31-38.

Abou El Magd, I., Soong, C.J.G., El Hawey, A.M. & Ravdin, J.I. (1996) Humoral and mucosal IgA antibody response to a recombinant 52 kDa cysteine-rich portion of the Entamoeba histolytica galactose-inhibitable lectin correlates with detection of native 170 kDa lectin antigen in serum of patients with amebic colitis. J. Infect. Dis. 174: 157-162.

Ackers, J.P. (1996) The invasiveness of Entamoeba histolytica - a continuing enigma. J. Clin. Pathol.: Mol. Pathol. 49: M192-M198.

Agi, P.I. (1995) Pattern of infection of intestinal parasites in Sagbama community of the Niger Delta, Nigeria. West Afr. J. Med. 14: 39-42.

Aksoy, S., Armstrong, M.Y.K., Dörtbudak, Z., Richards, F.F., Ariturk, S., Chang, K.P., Gottlieb, M., Western, K. & Ozcel, M.A. (1995) The GAP project in southeastern Turkey: the potential for emergence of diseases. Emerg. Infect. Dis. 1: 62-63.

Andrä, J., Beringhausen, O., Wulfken, J. & Leippe, M. (1996) Shortened amoebapore analogs with enhanced antibacterial and cytolytic activity. FEBS Letts. 385: 96-100.

Arraes de Alencar, L.C., Magalhães, V., de Melo, V.M., Aka, I., Magalhães, M. & Kobayashi, S. (1996) [Absence of invasive amebiasis in male homosexual AIDS patients in Recife, State of Pernambuco, Brazil (in Portuguese)]. Rev. Soc. Brasil. Med. Trop. 29: 319-322.

Aubry, P., Oddes, B. & Bechade, D. (1996) Colitis in tropical regions. Acta Endoscopica 26: 17-27.

Ayala, P., Gómez, M.de C., Pérez, D.G., Samuelson, J. & Orozco, E. (1996) Multidrug resistance gene family in Entamoeba histolytica. In M.A. Özcel and M.Z. Alkan (Eds.), Parasitology for the 21^st century. Wallingford, Oxon., UK: CAB International, pp. 159-165.

Bardhan, P.K. & Fuchs, G.J. (1996) Tropical gastrointestinal and hepatic infections. Curr. Opin. Infect. Dis. 9: 303-307.

Bayraktar, Y., Arslan, S., Sivri, B., Eryilmaz, M., Akova, M., Vanthiel, D.H. & Kayhan, B. (1996) Percutaneous drainage of hepatic abscesses: therapy does not difer for those with identifiable biliary fistula. Hepato-Gastroenterology 43: 620-626.

Becker, I., Pérez-Montfort, R., Pérez-Torres, A., Rondán-Zárate, A., Montfort, I. & Pérez-Tamayo, R. (1996) Entamoeba histolytica: localization of a 30-kDa cysteine proteinase using a monoclonal antibody. Exp. Parasitol. 82: 171-181.

Bhattacharya, D. & Laha, R.G. (1996) A study on human gastrointestinal parasitic infections in Kumaon. J. Parasitol. Appl. Animal. Biol. 5: 29-32.

Bhattacharya, S.K. (1996) Management of acute diarrhoea. Indian J. Med. Res. 104: 96-102.

Boco, V., Kodjoh, N. & Hountondji, A. (1996) [Echography and amebic liver abscesses at the teaching hospital of Cotonou, Benin: 33 cases (in French)]. Cahiers Santé 6: 157-160.

Brickfield, F.X., Gebreegzi, M. & Beyene, A. (1996) Incidence of protozoal diarrheal disease in an expatriate community in Addis Ababa. Ethiopian Med. J. 34: 107-115.

Bruchhaus, I., Jacobs, T., Denart, M. & Tannich, E. (1996) Pyrophosphate-dependent phosphofructokinase of Entamoeba histolytica: molecular cloning, recombinant expression and inhibition by pyrophosphate analogues. Biochem J 316: 57-63.

Carrero, J.C. & Laclette, J.P. (1996) Molecular biology of Entamoeba histolytica: a review. Arch. Med. Res. 27: 403-412.

Darie, H. & Klotz, F. (1996) Anal and peri-anal pathology in tropical areas. Acta Endoscopica 26: 9-16.

De la Sotta, P., Riquelme, A., Silva, B., Tassera, R., Muñoz C. del V., P. & López, L. (1996) [Intestinal parasitosis in Santiago in relation to cholera prevention campaign (in Spanish)]. Parasitol. al Dia 20: 27-31.

Debord, T., Eono, P., Rey, J.L. & Roue, R. (1996) [Infectious hazards in military personnel in operations (in French)]. Méd. Malad. Infect. 26: 402-407.

DeSouza, W. (1995) Structural organization of the cell surface of pathogenic protozoa. Micron 26: 405-430.

Edlind, T.D., Li, J., Visvesvara, G.S., Vodkin, M.H., McLaughlin, G.L. & Katiyar, S.K. (1996) Phylogenetic analysis of -tubulin sequences from amitochondrial protozoa. Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 5: 359-367.

Estrada, G., Colin, L., Gaytan, P., Alagón, A. & Lizardi, P.M. (1996) Sequence specific detection of PCR-amplified DNA by restriction enzyme release of hybrids. Mol. Cell. Probes 10: 179-185.

Faye, O., NDir, O., Gaye, O., Gassama, K. & Diallo, S. (1995) [Analysis of non-specific treatment of intestinal parasitoses in children in Senegal (in French)]. Méd. d'Afrique Noire 42: 668-671.

Gilchrist, C.A., Streets, H.L., Ackers, J.P. & Hall, R. (1996) PCR-based quantitation of transfected luciferase DNA: evaluation using an Entamoeba histolytica reporter construct. BioTechniques 20: 764.

Giménez-Scherer, J.A., Noriega, R., Rico, G., Merchant, M.T. & Kretschmer, R.R. (1996) The ultrastructure of Entamoeba histolytica locomotion. Arch. Med. Res. 27: 311-318.

Giri, B., Raha, S., Bhattacharyya, B., Biswas, S. & Biswas, B.B. (1996) Relative importance of inositol (1,4,5)trisphosphate and inositol (1,3,4,5)tetrakisphosphate in Entamoeba histolytica. FEBS Letts. 393: 109-112.

Girones Vila, J., Roig Garcia, J., Codina Cazador, A., Masvidal Calpe, R., Garcia Oria, M., Codina Barreras, A. & Perez Bueno, F. (1996) [Low digestive hemorrhage caused by amebic colitis (in Spanish)]. Rev. Española Enferm. Dig. 88: 223-225.

Goodgame, R.W. (1996) Diagnosis and treatment of gastrointestinal protozoal infections. Curr. Opin. Infect. Dis. 9: 346-352.

Grigoriu, A., Lin-Greenberg, A., Sodhi, S.K. & Sackey, E. (1995) Tropical diseases in urban New Jersey. Infect. Med. 12: 460-469.

Gómez, M. del C., Pérez, D.G., Ayala, P., Samuelson, J. & Orozco, E. (1996) Physiology and molecular biology of multidrug resistance in Entamoeba histolytica. Arch. Med. Res. 27: 421-425.

Guillén, N. (1996) Role of signalling and cytoskeletal rearrangements in the pathogenesis of Entamoeba histolytica. Trends Microbiol. 4: 191-197.

Guillén, N., Arhets, P., Gounon, P. & Sansonetti, P. (1996) Cytoskeleton activities in pathogenic Entamoeba histolytica. In M.A. Özcel and M.Z. Alkan (Eds.), Parasitology for the 21^st century. Wallingford, Oxon., UK: CAB International, pp. 167-173.

Hall, A. (1995) Clinical management of intestinal protozoa. Africa Health 17: 15-18.

Hejase, M.J., Bihrle, R., Castillo, G. & Coogan, C.L. (1996) Amebiasis of the penis. Urology 48: 151-154.

Itoh, H., Nishiyama, M., Matsuda, Y., Hosogi, H., Matsushita, K., Kumazawa, H., Imamura, K. & Hashiguchi, Y. (1995) [Amoebic liver abscess complicating diabetes mellitus (in Japanese)]. J. Japan Diabetes Soc. 38: 881-886.

Joyce, T., McGuigan, K.G., Elmore-Meegan, M. & Conroy, R.M. (1996) Prevalence of enteropathogens in stools of rural Maasai children under five years of age in the Maasailand region of the Kenyan Rift Valley. East Afr. Med. J. 73: 59-62.

Juckett, G. (1996) Intestinal protozoa. American Family Physician 53: 2507-2516.

Kamal, R. & Mathur, N. (1994) Larvicidal and amoebicidal activities of 'pyrethrins' extracted from plant sources other than pyrethrum, Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium [sic] Vis. Pyrethrum Post 19: 54-60.

Kimura, A., Hara, Y., Kimoto, T., Okuno, Y., Minekawa, Y. & Nakabayashi, T. (1996) Cloning and expression of a putative alcohol dehydrogenase gene of Entamoeba histolytica and its application to immunological examination. Clin. Diagn. Lab. Immunol. 3: 270-274.

Leroy, A., Mareel, M., De Bruyne, G., Bailey, G. & Nelis, H. (1995) Metastasis of Entamoeba histolytica compared to colon cancer: one more step in invasion (Vol 14, Pg 177, 1994; Correction/Addition). Invasion Metastasis 15: 167-168.

Li, E. & Stanley, S.L. (1996) Protozoa: Amebiasis. Gastroenterol. Clinics North Amer. 25: 471-.

Lohia, A. & Samuelson, J. (1996) Heterogeneity of Entamoeba histolytica rac genes encoding p21^rac homologues. Gene 173: 205-208.

Malshe, P.C. (1995) Chronic amebiasis: treat couples. J. Assoc. Phys. India 43: 74.

Mandal, S.C. & Ghosh, R.C. (1996) An atypical case of canine amebic dysentery. Indian Vet. J. 73: 669-670.

Martínez García, F., Regardera, J., Mayer, R., Sánchez, S. & Nistal, M. (1996) Protozoan infections in the male genital tract. J. Urol. 156: 340-329.

Mirelman, D., Nuchamowitz, Y., Böhm-Gloning, B. & Walderich, B. (1996) A homologue of the cysteine proteinase gene (ACP₁ or Eh-CPp3) of pathogenic Entamoeba histolytica is present in non-pathogenic E. dispar strains. Mol. Biochem. Parasitol. 78: 47-54.

Moreno Fierros, L. & Enriquez Rincon, F. (1996) Quantification and isotype analysis of the serum anti-amebic antibody response produced after mucosal and systemic immunization in male and female mice. Folia Biologica 42: 99-103.

Mukhopadhyay, R.M. & Chaudhuri, S.K. (1996) Rapid in vitro test for determination of anti-amoebic activity. Trans. R. Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg. 90: 189-191.

Ong, S.-J., Cheng, M.-Y., Liu, K.-H. & Horng, C.-B. (1996) Use of ProSpecT^® microplate enzyme immunoassay for the detection of pathogenic and non-pathogenic Entamoeba histolytica in faecal specimens. Trans. R. Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg. 90: 248-249.

Overbosch, D. & Ledeboer, M. (1995) 'The tropics in our bathroom': chronic diarrhoea after return from the tropics. Scand. J. Gastroenterol. 212 (Suppl): 43-47.

Pal, S., Sengupta, K., Manna, B., Sarkar, S., Bhattacharya, S. & Das, P. (1996) Comparative evaluation of somatic and excretory-secretory antigens of Entamoeba histolytica in serodiagnosis of human amoebiasis by ELISA. Indian J. Med. Res. 104: 152-156.

Pérez, E., Muñoz, M.de L. & Ortega, A. (1996) Entamoeba histolytica: involvement of pp125^FAK in collagen-induced signal transduction. Exp. Parasitol. 82: 164-170.

Purdy, J.E., Pho, L.T., Mann, B.J. & Petri, W.A., Jr. (1996) Upstream regulatory elements controlling expression of the Entamoeba histolytica lectin. Mol. Biochem. Parasitol. 78: 91-103.

Quijano-Pitman, F. (1995) [Cerebral amoebic abscess. First surgically treated case with success (in Spanish)]. Gac. Méd. México 131: 586.

Quijano-Pitman, F. (1996) [Amoebiasis: first reports on amoebic abscess (in Spanish)]. Gac. Méd. México 132: 82-84.

Reed, S.L., Gigli, I., Eckmann, L., Kognoff, M. & McKerrow, J.H. (1996) Molecular and cell biology of invasion of Entamoeba histolytica. In M.A. Özcel and M.Z. Alkan (Eds.), Parasitology for the 21^st century. Wallingford, Oxon., UK: CAB International, pp. 149-157.

Rivera, W.L., Tachibana, H., Silva-Tahat, M.R.A., Uenura, H. & Kanbara, H. (1996) Differentiation of Entamoeba histolytica from E. dispar DNA from cysts present in stool specimens by polymerase chain reaction: its field application in the Philippines. Parasitol. Res. 82: 585-589.

Rodríguez Hernandez, J., Canut Blasco, A., Brezmes Valdivieso, M.F. & de Fuentes, I. (1995) [Clinico-epidemiological implications of indigenous infections of Entamoeba histolytica (in Spanish)]. Rev. Española Enferm. Digest. 87: 835-836.

Rodríguez, M.A., Baez-Camargo, M., Delgadillo, D.M. & Orozco, E. (1996) Cloning and expression of an Entamoeba histolytica NADP⁺-dependent alcohol dehydrogenase gene. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1306: 23-26.

Rodríguez, M.A., Hidalgo, M.E., Sánchez, T. & Orozco, E. (1996) Cloning and characterization of the Entamoeba histolytica pyruvate:ferredoxin oxidoreductase gene. Mol. Biochem. Parasitol. 78: 273-277.

Saavedra-Lira, E. & Pérez-Montfort, R. (1996) Energy production in Entamoeba histolytica: new perspectives in rational drug design. Arch. Med. Res. 27: 257-264.

Sack, R.B. (1996) Current treatment of infectious diarrhea. Infect. Med . 13: 301-302, 304-306, 313.

Said-Fernández, S. & Flores-Castañeda, M.S. (1996) [Molecular diagnosis of amebiasis (in Spanish)]. Gac. Méd. México 132: 314-318.

Samrejrongroj, P. (1995) Amoebic infection and the host immune response. J. Infect. Dis. Antimicrob. Agents 12: 137-139.

Sehgal, D., Bhattacharya, A. & Bhattacharya, S. (1996) Pathogenesis of infection by Entamoeba histolytica. J. Biosciences 21: 423-432.

Seitz, H.M. (1995) [Parasitic diseases of the liver (in German)]. Verh. Dtsch. Ges. Pathol. 79: 241-248.

Sharma, P.K. & Sharma, J.D. (1996) Potent amebicides from plant extracts: an in vitro assessment with the gum-oleo-resin of Commiphora wightii. Curr. Sci. 71: 68-70.

Spindola Felix, N., Rojas Wastavino, G., de Haro Arteaga, I., Cabrera Bravo, M. & Salazar Schettino, P.M. (1996) Parasite search in strawberries from Irapuato, Guanajuato and Zamora, Michoacan (Mexico). Arch. Med. Res. 27: 229-231.

Stabilini, L., Brigli, G., Doria, F., Ottria, G., Bonomo, A., Bisio, M., Zanni, N. & Casablanca, M. (1996) [Amebic liver abscess. Report of two cases. (in Italian)]. Minerva Gastroenterol. Dietol. 42: 173-178.

Takenaka, H., Konishi, M., Takeuchi, S., Maeda, K., Mikasa, K., Sawaki, M., Narita, N., Nishiyama, T., Araki, T., Higashiguchi, R. & Ohnuki, M. (1996) [A case of amoebiasis as a latent infection (in Japanese)]. Kansenshogaku Zasshi 70: 247-250.

Takhtani, D., Kalagara, S., Trehan, M.S., Chawla, Y. & Suri, S. (1996) Intrapericardial rupture of amebic liver abscess managed with percutaneous drainage of liver abscess alone. Amer. J. Gastroenterol. 91: 1460-1462.

Tannich, E. (1996) Recent advances in DNA-mediated gene transfer of Entamoeba histolytica. Parasitol. Today 12: 198-200.

Teran Escalera, C., Leonard Royer, P., Veintemillas Shintani, F. & Zabalaga Salcedo, L. (1995) [Enteropathogens in cases of acute diarrhoea (in Spanish)]. Rev. Española Pediatr. 51: 549-551.

Thammapalerd, N., Kotimanusvanij, D., Duchêne, M., Upcroft, J.A., Mitchell, R., Healey, A., Samarawickrema, N., Tharavanij, S., Wiederman, G. & Upcroft, P. (1996) Pyruvate:ferredoxin oxidoreductase from Entamoeba histolytica recognized by a monoclonal antibody. S. E. Asian J. Trop. Med. Publ. Hlth. 27: 63-70.

Urban, B., Blasig, C., Förster, B., Hamelmann, C. & Horstmann, R.D. (1996) Putative serine/threonine protein kinase expressed in complement-resistant forms of Entamoeba histolytica. Mol. Biochem. Parasitol. 80: 171-178.

Van, L.P., Manh, H.D. & Nhu, H. (1996) [Amebic abscess of the liver: ultrasound guided aspiration (in French)]. Ann. Chirurgie 50: 340-343.

Venugopalan, B., Patel, B., Karnik, P.J., De Souza, N.J., Chatterjee, D.K. & Iyer, N. (1996) Synthesis of diphenyl bisamidines as potential amoebicides. Eur. J. Med. Chem. 31: 485-488.

Vila, J.G., Garcia, J.R., Cazador, A.C., Calpe, R.M., Oria, M.G., Barreras, A.C. & Bueno, F.P. (1996) [Lower intestinal bleeding by amebic colitis (in Spanish)]. Rev. Española Enferm. Dig. 88: 223-225.

Villagomez Castro, J.C. & Lopez Romero, E. (1996) Identification and partial characterization of three chitinase forms in Entamoeba invadens with emphasis on their inhibition by allosamidin. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek Int. J. Gen. Mol. Microbiol. 70: 41-48.

Wahab, M.F.A., Younis, T.A., Fahmy, I.A. & El-Gindy, I.M.S. (1996) Parasitic infections presenting as prolonged fevers. J. Egypt. Soc. Parasitol. 26: 509-516.

Wynants, H., Van den Ende, J., Randria, J., Van Gompel, A., Van den Enden, E., Brands, C., Cooremans, B., Michielsen, P., Veerbist, L. & Colebunders, R. (1995) Diagnosis of amebic infection of the liver: report of 36 cases. Ann. Soc. Belge Méd. Trop. 75: 297-303.

Yong, T.S., Li, E., Clark, D. & Stanley, S.L. (1996) Complementation of an Escherichia coli AdhE mutant by the Entamoeba histolytica EhADH2 gene provides a method for the identification of new antiamebic drugs. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 93: 6464-6469.