Suspected and confirmed cases of leptospirosis in a tertiary hospital in Panama, 2013-2018

A
cohort of patients admitted from January 2013 to December 2018 to a tertiary hospital in Panama with
suspected leptospirosis was retrospectively reviewed. We considered suspected
cases those that had a serology test for leptospirosis requested, even if the
sample was not obtained. Demographic data, clinical signs and symptoms,
laboratory profile and treatment regimens were collected from medical charts. Only
those patient’s whos’ medical paper records were available for review at the
archives were included in the analysis. Microagglutination assay (MAT)
results were used to
confirm or rule out leptospirosis. This test requires obtaining paired serum or
blood samples, the first one 10-12 days after onset of symptoms and the second
one at least 10 days later.