Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 May;22(2):253-256.
doi: 10.18295/squmj.6.2021.083. Epub 2022 May 26.

Amoebic Liver Abscess: A disease native to Oman?

Nenad Pandak  1 , Sirous Golchinheydari  1 , Asmaa S Mahdi  1 , Ali Al Majrafi  2 , Stephen S Deenadayalan  3 , Faryal Khamis  1
Affiliations

Amoebic Liver Abscess: A disease native to Oman?

Nenad Pandak et al. Sultan Qaboos Univ Med J. 2022 May.

Abstract

Objectives: Amoebic liver abscess (ALA) is endemic to many areas of the world. This study sought to investigate the epidemiology, presentation, laboratory tests and imaging characteristics of ALA in Oman and ultimately determine whether it is native to Oman or originated abroad.

Methods: This case series study was conducted at the Royal Hospital, Muscat, Oman, from January 2013 to December 2017 with patients older than 13 years and having a discharge diagnosis of ALA. Patient data were extracted from the Royal Hospital patient database.

Results: 22 patients were included in the study-18 Omani patients and four expatriates. Only two Omanis had a history of traveling abroad. There were 15 male patients and seven were female with an average age of 45.2 years. The most common presentation was abdominal pain, which was seen in 17 patients. Fever was seen in 13 patients. Alanine transferase was found to be elevated in 13 patients. The majority of patients (90%) had no symptomatic infections prior to developing ALA.

Conclusion: The data suggests that ALA is endemic to Oman, considering the high number of local patients and lack of travel abroad in this population. As the number of patients treated for ALA is rather small, it can be concluded that the occurrence of ALA is much lower in Oman than in other endemic areas. The majority of patients had no prior symptomatic infections; thus, a method of control involves screening to prevent amoebic spread.

Keywords: Amoebiasis; Amoebic Liver Abscess; Entamoeba histolytica; Liver Abscess; Oman.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICT OF INTEREST The authors of this article declare that there is no conflict of interest.

References

    1. Kantor M, Abrantes A, Estevez A, Schiller A, Torrent J, Gascon J, et al. Entamoeba histolytica: Updates in clinical manifestation, pathogenesis, and vaccine development. Can J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2018;2018:1–6. doi: 10.1155/2018/4601420. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Tharmaratnam T, Kumanan T, Iskandar M, D’Urzo K, Gopee-Ramanan P, Loganathan M, et al. Entamoeba histolytica and amoebic liver abscess in northern Sri Lanka: A public health problem. Trop Med Health. 2020;48:1–13. doi: 10.1186/s41182-020-0193-2. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Drinić M, Raninger A, Zraunig A, Astelbauer F, Leitsch D, Obwaller A. Activity of methylgerambullin from Glycosmis species (Rutaceae) against Entamoeba histolytica and Giardia duodenalis in vitro. Int J Parasitol Drugs Drug Resist. 2019;10:109–17. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpddr.2019.08.001. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Torre A, Kershenobich D. Amebic liver abscess. Ann Hepatol. 2002;1:45–7. doi: 10.1016/S1665-2681(19)32192-1. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Chou A, Austin RL. Entamoeba histolytica. Treasure Island, USA: StatPearls Publishing; 2020. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources