Abstract
Syphilis is one of the unrecognized etiologies of liver dysfunction. The incidence of syphilitic hepatitis is currently unknown. We conducted a retrospective study of causative agents of liver dysfunction at the time of diagnosis of early syphilis. Our study shows that 39 % (44/112) of early syphilis patients have liver enzyme abnormalities at the time of diagnosis and that 2.7 % (3/112) of patients are diagnosed with syphilitic hepatitis. Clinicians should include syphilitic hepatitis in the differential diagnosis for those patients with sexually transmitted diseases presenting with liver enzyme abnormalities.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported in part by a contract research fund from, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) for Program of Japan Initiative for Global Research Network on Infectious Diseases, Global COE Program (Center of Education and Research for Advanced Genome-Based Medicine - For personalized medicine and the control of worldwide infectious diseases) of MEXT, Research on international cooperation in medical science, Research on global health issues, Health and Labor Science Research Grants, the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare of Japan, Health and Labor Sciences Research Grants (No. H24-AIDS-002) from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, Japan.
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The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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Adachi, E., Koibuchi, T., Okame, M. et al. Liver dysfunction in patients with early syphilis: a retrospective study. J Infect Chemother 19, 180–182 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10156-012-0440-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10156-012-0440-5