Summary
The treatment of amebiasis with the new amebicidal drugs is critically reviewed from the standpoint of relief of symptoms, toxicity and relapse. Most of the therapeutic preparations available are effective and produce cure in mild and early amebiasis or in the symptomless carrier. Few of the drugs eradicate the amebae in deep seated infections and relapses in these cases are frequent. Cure in these patients can be obtained only by persistent and alternating treatment with the above mentioned amebicides — varying the amount of ammunition so to speak — and the oral administration of large doses of bismuth, to heal indolent chronic ulcers.
Forty-one cases of amebiasis were treated with a new amebicide, di-iodohydroxylquinoline (diodoquin), containing approximately 64% of iodine. This drug was found to relieve the colonic and nervous symptoms, incidental to this disease, in a comparatively short time. Relapses were not observed in those patients who were treated with large doses of the compound, as advocated by Silverman and Craig. No toxic effects were encountered. Relapses occurred in four out of the first fifteen patients treated, because the dosage administered was insufficient to effect cure. The proper and effective dosage of diodoquin should be 23 to 30 grs. (1.5 to 2.0 gm.) per day for twenty days.
The therapeutic effect on the colon and rectum was also observed by frequent sigmoidoscopic and stool examinations during and after treatment. Trophozoites and cysts disappeared in all cases from ten to fifteen days from the time treatment was started. Diodoquin relieved the clinical and pathological symptoms in this series of patients promptly in seven to fourteen days. It is evident, therefore, that this new oxyquinoline compound is a valuable drug, fulfilling the criteria of the ideal amebicide more than any other preparation available at the present time.
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The material used in this investigation was furnished by G. D. Searle and Co.
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Hummel, H.G. A critical appraisal of the newer amebicides and the results of treatment of amebiasis with di-iodo-hydroxyquinoline (diodoquin). American Journal of Digestive Diseases 6, 27–32 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02996617
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02996617