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A case of Helicobacter cinaedi bacteremia in an asplenic patient.

ABSTRACT: Helicobacter cinaedi is an enterohepatic species. It can cause bacteremia, gastroenteritis, and cellulitis, particularly in immunocompromised individuals, such as those with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, malignancy, or alcoholism. There are no previous reports of H. cinaedi infection in Korea. A 71-yr-old man was admitted to the emergency room because of dyspnea on November 9, 2011. He had undergone splenectomy 3 yr ago because of immune hemolytic anemia. Chest plain radiography revealed bilateral pleural effusion. He developed fever on hospital day (HD) 21. Three sets of blood cultures were taken, and gram-negative spiral bacilli were detected in all aerobic vials. The isolate grew in tiny colonies on chocolate agar after 3-day incubation under microaerophilic conditions. This organism tested positive for catalase and oxidase, and negative for urease. The 16S rRNA gene sequence of this isolate exhibited 99.8% homology with the published sequence of H. cinaedi CCUG 18818(T) (GenBank accession no. ABQT01000054) and 98.5% homology with the sequence of Helicobacter bilis Hb1(T) (GenBank accession no. U18766). The patient was empirically treated with piperacillin/tazobactam and levofloxacin, and discharged with improvement on HD 31. To our knowledge, this is the first report of H. cinaedi bacteremia in an asplenic patient. Asplenia appears to be a risk factor for H. cinaedi bacteremia.

SUBMITTER: Kim SK

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3486939 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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A case of Helicobacter cinaedi bacteremia in an asplenic patient.

Kim Soo-Kyung SK Cho Eun-Jung EJ Sung Heungsup H An Dongheui D Park Sook-Ja SJ Kim Mi-Na MN Nam Gi-Byoung GB

Annals of laboratory medicine 20121017 6

Helicobacter cinaedi is an enterohepatic species. It can cause bacteremia, gastroenteritis, and cellulitis, particularly in immunocompromised individuals, such as those with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, malignancy, or alcoholism. There are no previous reports of H. cinaedi infection in Korea. A 71-yr-old man was admitted to the emergency room because of dyspnea on November 9, 2011. He had undergone splenectomy 3 yr ago because of immune hemolytic anemia. Chest plain radiography revealed b ...[more]

PMID: 23130344

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Project description:BACKGROUND:The presentation of clinical leptospirosis has been historically associated with animal workers, slaughterhouse workers and medical veterinarians. This association has shifted to be related to flooding events and outdoor activities; few cases are related to high-risk factors found in immunosuppressed patients. Scarcely a handful of cases have serological evidence of immune response against Leptospira serovar Bratislava representing serogroup Australis, a serovar associated with poor reproductive performance in swine and horses, and recently with cats. CASE PRESENTATION:Herein, we describe a rare clinical presentation of disseminated Leptospira infection in an immunosuppressed 65-year-old woman. She was admitted to the emergency room with fever, bacteraemia, bilateral uveitis and pulmonary involvement. The patient denied outdoor activities; she only had wide exposure to faeces and urine from cats living in her home. Her medical history included idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) diagnosed at the age of 18. She did not respond to medical treatment, and a splenectomy was performed. At age 60, she was diagnosed with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML), and was treated with a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) -Imatinib. The patient voluntarily discontinued the treatment for the last 6 months. After extensive workup, no microorganisms were identified by the commonly used stains in microbiology. The diagnosis was performed through dark-field microscopy, microagglutination test (MAT), Leptospira genus-specific PCR, the IS1500 PCR for identification of pathogenic species, and 16S based sequencing for the genus identification. CONCLUSION:Immunosuppressed patients may acquire uncommon infections from ubiquitous microorganisms. In this case, serology evidence of exposure to Leptospira serovar Bratislava by MAT and the presence of the Leptospira genus were identified. It should be on mind for the diagnosis in otherwise healthy patients, and thoroughly search on splenectomised patients exposed to animals. Additionally, this report highlights the usefulness of PCR for diagnosis of this potentially life-threatening illness.

Project description:BackgroundUp to 20% of all infective endocarditis are blood culture-negative and therefore a diagnostic challenge. Here we present the case of an infective endocarditis due to Helicobacter cinaedi finally diagnosed using different molecular methods. This highly fastidious gram-negative spiral rod is increasingly recognized as a human pathogen, above all in immunocompromised patients. So far H. cinaedi has been associated with bacteremia, cellulitis, arthritis and meningitis.Case presentationA 71-year-old man presented with fever and progressive dyspnea for weeks. He was immunocompromised by long-term steroid therapy. As one major and two minor Duke's criteria (vegetation, fever and aortic valve stenosis as predisposition) were present, an infective endocarditis was suspected and an empiric therapy with amoxicillin/clavulanic acid and gentamicin was established. The persistent severe aortic regurgitation resulted in a valve replacement. Histological evaluation of the aortic valve showed a polypous-ulcerative endocarditis. Gram stain and culture remained negative. Broad-range bacterial PCR targeting the 16S rRNA gene on the biopsy of the aortic valve identified H. cinaedi as the causative agent. The antibiotic therapy was simplified accordingly to ceftriaxone and gentamicin with a recommended duration of 6 weeks. Ten days after valve replacement the patient was discharged. To complete our molecular finding, we sequenced nearly the complete 16S rRNA gene (accession number KF914917) resulting in 99.9% identity with H. cinaedi reference sequences. Based on this result, 2 species-specific PCR tests amplifying part of the ctd gene were established and applied to the valve specimen. The 2 PCRs confirmed H. cinaedi. In addition, we analyzed stool, urine and saliva from the patient using H. cinaedi PCR. The fecal and urine specimen showed a positive signal, saliva was PCR-negative.ConclusionWe identified H. cinaedi as causative agent of a culture-negative endocarditis in an immunocompromised patient using broad-range and specific PCR. In addition to 2 cases from Japan presented on international meetings in 2010 and 2013, our case report shows that H. cinaedi should be recognized as additional causative organism of infective endocarditis. The use of molecular diagnostic techniques proved to be a powerful complement for the detection of blood culture-negative infective endocarditis.

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A case of Helicobacter cinaedi bacteremia in an asplenic patient.

Publications

A case of Helicobacter cinaedi bacteremia in an asplenic patient.

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