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Jung, Park, Baek, Choi, Jo, Kim, Son, Chae, Kim, and Jung: The Prevalence of Yersinia Infection in Adult Patients with Acute Right Lower Quadrant Pain
Original Article

Korean J Gastroenterol 2011;57(1):14-18.

Published online: 4 October 2011

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4166/kjg.2011.57.1.14

The Prevalence of Yersinia Infection in Adult Patients with Acute Right Lower Quadrant Pain

Jun Young Jung, Young Sook Park, Dae Hyun Baek, Jeoung Ho Choi, Yun Ju Jo, Seong Hwan Kim, Byoung Kwan Son, Jeong Don Chae1, Dong Hee Kim2, Yoon Young Jung1, 2, 3

1Department of Gastroenterology, Laboratory Medicine, Eulji Medical Center, Eulji University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

2Department of Surgery, Eulji Medical Center, Eulji University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

3Department of Radiology, Eulji Medical Center, Eulji University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

Correspondence to: Young Sook Park, Department of Internal Medicine, General Hospital, Eulji University School of Medicine, 14, Hangeulbi-seok-gil, Nowon-gu, Seoul 139-711, Korea. Tel: +82-2-970-8207, Fax: +82-2-970-8621, E-mail: pys1109@eulji.ac.kr

Received 20 July 2010       Revised 13 August 2010       Accepted 28 August 2010

Copyright © 2011 Korean Ophthalmological Society

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Background/Aims

Clinical manifestations of intestinal yersiniosis include enterocolitis, mesenteric adenitis, and terminal ileitis presenting with fever, right lower quadrant pain, and leukocytosis. According to a previous Korean study in 1997, Yersinia was revealed in two among 15 adult patients with mesenteric adenitis (13%). However, recent reports on the prevalence of Yersinia infection in adult patients are few. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of Yersinia infection in adult patients with acute right lower quadrant pain.

Methods

Adult patients (＞18 years) who visited Eulji medical center, due to acute right lower quadrant pain were enrolled prospectively from December 2007 to July 2009. Abdominal CT, stool culture, serologic test for Yersinia, and Widal test were performed.

Results

Among 115 patients, 5 patients were excluded due to positive Widal test or salmonella culture. In 110 patients, abdominal CT showed right colitis in 20 (18.2%), terminal ileitis in 16 (14.5%), mesenteric adenitis in 13 (11.8%), acute appendicitis in 10 (9.1%), acute diverticulitis in 7 (6.4%), non specific mucosal edema in 36 (32.7%) and no specific lesion in 8 (7.3%). Two (1.8%) of the 110 patients had antibodies to Yersinia. One patient showed acute enteritis and the other patient was diagnosed with acute appendicitis and underwent appendectomy. No Yersinia species were grown on stool or tissue culture.

Conclusions

Nowadays, among adult Korean patients presenting with acute right lower quadrant pain, there have been few incidences of Yersinia infection.

Keywords: Yersinia infections, Intestinal diseases, Abdominal pain

References

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Fig. 1.
Findings of abdominal computed tomography in 110 patients.
kjg-57-14f1.tif
Table 1.
Clinical Characteristics of Patients with Right Lower Quadrant Pain
Clinical characteristics  
Sex (M:F) 1:1.29
Median age (years)    48.8 (19–82)
Diarrheal symptom (n), (%) 43/110 (39.1%)
Fever (n), (%) 37/110 (33.6%)
Median duration of right lower quadrant pain (days) 3.7
Associated diseases (n) Diabetes mellitus (19), Hypertension (3), Chronic liver disease (4)
Table 2.
Results of Yersinia Serum Antibody and Culture in 110 Patients with Right Lower Quadrant Pain
Serum antibody (n=110) Yersinia culture
Stool (n=55) Tissue (n=20)
Positive 2 (1.8%) a Positive 0 Positive 0
Negative 108 (98.2%) Negative 55 Negative 20

a Anti-Y. pseudotuberculosis antibody positive.

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