Praveen V, Satish Kumar, Sajith Kumar Radhakrishnan
BACKGROUND Leptospirosis is an emerging infectious disease of global importance with clinical manifestations varying from inapparent infection to fulminant fatal disease. Leptospirosis is endemic in many areas of Kerala. Liver involvement is common in leptospirosis. MATERIALS AND METHODS 130 cases with confirmed leptospirosis were studied. Clinical features and liver function abnormalities were checked on admission 3 weeks and again at 6 weeks. Follow up data was analysed with SPSS version 21. The type of study conducted was descriptive study (longitudinal) and duration of the study was continues for 11 months. RESULTS Fever and myalgia were present in all patients. On admission, 68.46% patients had raised total bilirubin, 67.69% patients had raised direct bilirubin, 93% patients had raised SGOT and SGPT was raised in 93% patients and 36.92% patients had raised ALP. On 3-week and 6-week follow up, only a limited percentage of patients showed persistence of mild elevation of transaminase level and bilirubin level. Prolongation of INR was in 26.92% of patients. The death rate was 6.15%. CONCLUSION Liver involvement in leptospirosis was mainly in the form of raised levels of transaminases and bilirubin. High SGOT, SGPT and bilirubin levels were more in patients who died than survived patients. There was significant reduction in SGOT, SGPT and bilirubin levels among survivors at 3 weeks and 6 weeks when compared to admission. Patients with high SGOT, SGPT and total bilirubin levels had prolonged hospital stay.
