Influence of sex on clinical features, laboratory findings, and complications of typhoid fever

Abstract

Clinical features, laboratory findings, and complications of typhoid fever were correlated with sex through a retrospective case note review of 102 hospitalized culture-positive patients in Durban, South Africa. Intestinal perforation (P = 0.04), occult blood losses in stools (P = 0.04), and a mild reticulocytosis in the absence of hemolysis (P = 0.02) occurred more frequently in males than in females. A single pretreatment Widal O antibody titer > or = 1:640 was also a statistically significant occurrence in males (P = 0. 006). Female patients were significantly more severely ill (P = 0.0004) on admission and had chest signs consistent with bronchopneumonia (P = 0.04), transverse myelitis (P = 0.04), abnormal liver function test results (P = 0.0003), and abnormal findings in urinalyses (P = 0.02). Typhoid hepatitis (P = 0.04) and glomerulonephritis (P = 0.02) were present significantly more frequently in females. Whether these differences were due to differences in host's immune response to acute infection need to be determined in a prospective study.