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Campylobacter jejuni Fatal Sepsis in a Patient with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma: Case Report and Literature Review of a Difficult Diagnosis.

ABSTRACT: Campylobacter jejuni (C. jejuni) bacteremia is difficult to diagnose in individuals with hematological disorders undergoing chemotherapy. The cause can be attributed to the rarity of this infection, to the variable clinical presentation, and to the partial overlapping symptoms underlying the disease. Here, we report a case of a fatal sepsis caused by C. jejuni in a 76-year-old Caucasian man with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. After chemotherapeutic treatment, the patient experienced fever associated with severe neutropenia and thrombocytopenia without hemodynamic instability, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. The slow growth of C. jejuni in the blood culture systems and the difficulty in identifying it with conventional biochemical phenotyping methods contributed to the delay of administering a targeted antimicrobial treatment, leading to a fatal outcome. Early recognition and timely intervention are critical for the successful management of C. jejuni infection. Symptoms may be difficult to recognize in immunocompromised patients undergoing chemotherapy. Thus, it is important to increase physician awareness regarding the clinical manifestations of C. jejuni to improve therapeutic efficacy. Moreover, the use of more aggressive empirical antimicrobial treatments with aminoglycosides and/or carbapenems should be considered in immunosuppressed patients, in comparison to those currently indicated in the guidelines for cancer-related infections supporting the use of cephalosporins as monotherapy.

SUBMITTER: Gallo MT

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4849000 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Campylobacter jejuni Fatal Sepsis in a Patient with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma: Case Report and Literature Review of a Difficult Diagnosis.

Gallo Maria Teresa MT Di Domenico Enea Gino EG Toma Luigi L Marchesi Francesco F Pelagalli Lorella L Manghisi Nicola N Ascenzioni Fiorentina F Prignano Grazia G Mengarelli Andrea A Ensoli Fabrizio F

International journal of molecular sciences 20160412 4

Campylobacter jejuni (C. jejuni) bacteremia is difficult to diagnose in individuals with hematological disorders undergoing chemotherapy. The cause can be attributed to the rarity of this infection, to the variable clinical presentation, and to the partial overlapping symptoms underlying the disease. Here, we report a case of a fatal sepsis caused by C. jejuni in a 76-year-old Caucasian man with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. After chemotherapeutic treatment, the patient experienced fever associated wi ...[more]

PMID: 27077849

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Project description:IntroductionParaneoplastic pruritus is defined as pruritus that occurs before or during the natural evolution of a hematologic disease. The reported prevalence is 30% in patients with Hodgkin's lymphoma. The severity of this pruritus has a very negative impact on patients' quality of life. Very few studies have been made to examine the efficacy of pharmacological treatments for this type of pruritus. One drug that appears to be effective in this respect is off-label aprepitant, a neurokinin 1 receptor antagonist.Case presentationA 20-year-old Caucasian woman presented with lateral neck nodes, sweating, and pruritus and was diagnosed with stage IIB nodular sclerosis Hodgkin's lymphoma. Throughout this period during the disease the pruritus was ever-present. Improvement was achieved with some of the chemotherapy treatments, but the symptom returned when the various treatments were withdrawn due to disease progression or poor tolerance. In the middle of the seventh year, she was admitted to our hospital with uncontrolled pruritus that resulted in severe lesions due to scratching. In response, aprepitant (off-label) 80 mg/day was added to the chemotherapic treatment of the pruritus, after studying the various treatment options. She reported a score of 9 on a visual analogue scale for the pruritus, and a score of 3 on the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status scale of performance status. After two weeks of treatment with aprepitant, she reported a score of 5 on the visual analogue scale for the pruritus, and this improved to a score of 4 in a month, which allowed her to lead a better quality of life, with an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status score between 1 and 2.ConclusionsSeveral cases and case series have been reported on the use of aprepitant for paraneoplastic pruritus, but none have referred to its use for Hodgkin's lymphoma. A prospective study was carried out to evaluate the efficacy of this drug in refractory pruritus secondary to Sezary syndrome, and other authors have studied the effectiveness of aprepitant against pruritus, secondary to biological therapy with erlotinib. In our case report, treatment was started with daily doses of aprepitant 80 mg. Pruritus improvement appeared to be attributable exclusively to the administration of aprepitant.

Dataset Information

Campylobacter jejuni Fatal Sepsis in a Patient with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma: Case Report and Literature Review of a Difficult Diagnosis.

Publications

Campylobacter jejuni Fatal Sepsis in a Patient with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma: Case Report and Literature Review of a Difficult Diagnosis.

Similar Datasets

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