Evaluation of Laboratory, Clinical and Treatment Results in Patients with Uncomplicated Brucellosis

Introduction: Brucellosis is a zoonotic infectious disease endemic in our country and affects all systems. We aimed to evaluate clinical, laboratory findings and treatment outcomes of uncomplicated brucellosis in our study. Materials and Methods: Patients with uncomplicated brucellosis and with no relapse were evaluated from four different cities. Demographic data, clinical, laboratory and radiological findings of follow-up and treatment of 101 patients were recorded in forms. Clinical response (healing, treatment failure, relapse, etc.), treatment side effects, compliance and treatment discontinuation were evaluated at one-year follow-up. Results: The most common risk factors for brucellosis were detected respectively as fresh cheese/dairy product consumption (82.2%), rural area life (71.3%), brucellosis in family and surroundings (42.6%), animal husbandry (27.7%), and brucellosis in animals (24.8%). 80.2% of the patients were evaluated as acute brucellosis. Clinically, fatigue, sweating, loss of appetite, fever, body aches, arthralgia; elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate, elevated C-reactive protein, elevated liver function tests, anemia and thrombocytopenia were the most frequent findings in laboratory examinations, respectively. In patients with brucellosis, blood culture positivity was 68%, Rose Bengal slide agglutination test was 97.1%, and tube agglutinin test positivity was 96.8%. The most preferred treatment regimen (90%) was doxycycline and rifampicin for 45 days, and treatment response was 89%. In five of the patients, treatment was changed due to doxycycline-linked gastrointestinal side effects. Relapses were seen in 4.9% of all patients. Conclusion: In brucellosis, delay in diagnosis increases the incidence of complications and the tendency to become chronic. For this reason, brucellosis must be considered in patients referred to health institutions with complaints such as fever, sweating and joint pain. Since uncomplicated brucellosis was evaluated in this study, it was seen that the majority of the patients were acute onset and had a high response rate to treatment.