Table 1.

Comparison of epidemiology and symptomatology in the reviews

Variable	Chun et al[17] 1900-1977	Nelken et al[5] 1977-1986	Ooi et al[18] 1987-1995	Present study 1986-2004
Number of cases	173	189	287	67
Male:female ratio(%)	104 : 61 (63)	125 :  64 (66)	163 : 80 (67)	41 : 26 (61)
Mean age (yr)	36.8	Not available	41.1	54.1
Age range (yr)	6 mo-83	6 mo-82	6 mo-92	19-79
Clinical presentations
Fever (%)	95.4	84	90.8	85
Left upper quadrant pain(%)	42.1	39	49.8	43.3
Splenomegaly(%)	53.9	40	30.7	67.2
Left pleural effusion(%)	19.7	Not available	22.3	41.5