Schistosomiasis in immigrants, refugees and travellers in an Italian referral centre for tropical diseases

Table 2 Clinical characteristics and laboratory results of the cohort and stratified by endemicity of provenience

Characteristic^a	Entire cohort	Area of origin		p-value^b
Characteristic^a	Entire cohort	Endemic	Non-endemic	p-value^b
Total, N (%)	272	234 (86.0)	38 (14.0)
Symptoms presence, N (%)	144 (52.9)	124 (52.9)	20 (52.6)	1
Abdominal pain	98 (36.0)	85 (36.3)	13 (34.2)	0.857
Genito-urinary	20 (7.4)	16 (6.8)	4 (10.5)	0.625
Macro-hematuria	25 (11.3)	22 (9.4)	3 (7.9)	1
Rectal bleeding	4 (1.5)	4 (1.7)	0 (0)
Cough	3 (1.1)	3 (1.3)	0 (0)
Positive microscopy, N (%)	103 (37.9)	98 (41.9)	5 (13.2)	< 0.001*
Ova in stools	50 (18.4)	48 (20.5)	2 (5.3)	0.020*
Ova in urine	52 (19.1)	49 (20.9)	3 (7.9)	0.070
Ova in biopsy	12 (4.4)	11 (4.7)	1 (2.6)	1
Schistosoma species, N (%)
S.haematobium	49 (47.6)	46 (46.9)	3 (60.0)	0.102
S.mansoni	48 (46.6)	46 (46.9)	2 (40.0)	0.037*
Both	6 (5.8)	6 (6.2)	0 (0.0)
Positive serology, N (%)	250 (91.9)	213 (91.0)	37 (97.4)	0.332
Increased IgE^c, N (%)	169 (63.8)	159 (70.0)	10 (26.3)	< 0.001*
Blood eosinophilia, N (%)	130 (47.8)	115 (49.1)	15 (39.5)	0.297
Other helminths, N (%)	49 (22.8)	44 (18.8)	5 (13.2)	0.499
Abnormal Ultrasound, N (%)	124 (48.8)	110 (50.2)	14 (40.0)	0.280
Infection Site, N (%)
IS	48 (17.9)	46 (20.0)	2 (5.4)	0.037*
HSS	13 (5.1)	13 (5.9)	0 (0)
UGS	133 (48.9)	120 (51.3)	13 (34.2)	0.056
I	110 (43.8)	88 (40.6)	22 (64.7)	0.009*
Diagnosis Type, N (%)
Confirmed	103 (37.9)	98 (41.9)	5 (13.2)	0.003*
Probable	165 (60.6)	133 (56.9)	32 (82.2)
Suspected	4 (1.5)	3 (1.2)	1 (2.6)

Abbreviations: IS Intestinal, HSS Hepato-splenic schistosomiasis, UGS Urogenital schistosomiasis, I Indeterminate
^aRelative frequencies for each variable are obtained on the sub-population for which information was available
^bCalculation of the P-value was done through different statistical tests. Namely, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used for testing the difference in the distribution of age and elapsed time, whereas Fisher’s exact test was used for all dichotomous variables. Finally, the Chi-Squared test was used to test the difference in the distribution among diagnoses
^cTotal IgE value equal or above the upper normal limit (≥120 IU/ml)

ISSN: 2049-9957