Diagnosis of Typhoid Fever
The clinical features of typhoid fever are nonspecific. So diagnosis of typhoid fever should be considered if a traveler returning from developing country with fever, especially from Indian subcontinent, and Latin America or in developing countries any patient with fever. Other diagnosis to be considered in case of fever and international travel are malaria, hepatitis, bacterial enteritis, dengue fever, rickettsial infections, leptospirosis, amebic liver abscesses, and acute HIV infection etc.
A positive blood culture is the only confirmatory test for diagnosis of typhoid fever and other laboratory tests are not diagnostic. There may be non specific laboratory changes like leukopenia and neutropenia in 15% to 25% of the cases of typhoid fever and also moderately elevated liver function tests and muscle enzyme levels.
Categories: Diseases Tags: Polymerase chain reaction, Salmonella
