[The clinical picture of the initial period of intestinal amebiasis]

Clinical symptoms of the initial stage of the disease (before the onset of pathognomonic signs of amoebiasis--the formation of ulcers in the colon) have been analysed in 287 patients with intestinal amoebiasis (IA). The following variants of the clinical pattern have been identified: slow-progressing IA (59.2% of the patients examined) and fast-progressing IA (40.8% of the patients examined). In 5 patients with body eight deficit and clinical manifestations of vitamin C and B deficiency the disease assumed a fulminant course. The patients' condition was considered severe or very severe already on the first days of the infection. The results of endoscopic studies (rectoromanoscopy, fiber colonoscopy) demonstrate that the formation of amoeba-induced damages in the colon mucosa takes place by the 6th-14th day of the disease onset.