Bmc Infect Dis
-
Infectious mononucleosis is one of the main manifestations of Epstein - Barr virus, which is characterized by fever, tonsillar-pharyngitis, lymphadenopathy and atypical lymphocytes. Although 60% of patients with IMN develop cold type antibodies, clinically significant hemolytic anemia with a high ferritin level is very rare and validity of serum ferritin as an important biomarker has not been used frequently. ⋯ Cold type autoimmune hemolytic anemia is a rare manifestation of infectious mononucleosis and serum ferritin is used very rarely as an important biomarker. Management of cold type anemia is mainly supportive and elevated serum ferritin indicates severe viral disease.
-
Iliopsoas abscess is a collection of pus in the iliopsoas muscle compartment. It can be primary or secondary in origin. Primary iliopsoas abscess occurs as a result of hematogenous or lymphatic seeding from a distant site. This is commonly associated with a chronic immunocompromised state and tends to occur in children and young adults. Secondary iliopsoas abscess occurs as a result of the direct spread of infection to the psoas muscle from an adjacent structure, and this may be associated with trauma and instrumentation in the inguinal region, lumbar spine, or hip region. The incidence of iliopsoas abscess is rare and often the diagnosis is delayed because of non-specific presenting symptoms. ⋯ The classic triad of fever, flank pain, and hip movement limitation is presented in only 30% of patients with iliopsoas abscess. Clinicians should consider iliopsoas abscess as a differential diagnosis in patients presenting with fever and thigh pain. The rare condition with the varied clinical presentation means that cross-sectional imaging should be considered early to reduce the risk of fulminant sepsis.
-
Clinical Trial
Subclinical tuberculosis among adults with HIV: clinical features and outcomes in a South African cohort.
Subclinical tuberculosis is an asymptomatic disease phase with important relevance to persons living with HIV. We describe the prevalence, clinical characteristics, and risk of mortality for HIV-infected adults with subclinical tuberculosis. ⋯ Nearly one-quarter of tuberculosis cases among HIV-infected adults were subclinical, which was characterized by an intermediate degree of immunosuppression. Although there was no significant difference in survival, anti-tuberculous treatment of subclinical cases was common.
-
Accurate drug susceptibility testing (DST) of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in clinical specimens and culture isolates to first-line drugs is crucial for diagnosis and management of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). Resistance of M. tuberculosis to rifampicin is mainly due to mutations in hot-spot region of rpoB gene (HSR-rpoB). The prevalence of disputed (generally missed by rapid phenotypic DST methods) rpoB mutations, which mainly include L511P, D516Y, H526N, H526L, H526S, and L533P in HSR-rpoB and I572F in cluster II region of rpoB gene, is largely unknown. This study determined the occurrence of all disputed mutations in HSR-rpoB and at rpoB codon 572 in M. tuberculosis strains phenotypically susceptible to rifampicin in Kuwait. ⋯ Four of 242 (1.7%) rifampicin-susceptible M. tuberculosis isolates contained a disputed rpoB mutation including 2 isolates resistant to all four first-line drugs. The occurrence of a disputed rpoB mutation in polydrug-resistant M. tuberculosis isolates resistant at least to isoniazid (MDR-TB) suggests that polydrug-resistant strains should be checked for genotypic rifampicin resistance for optimal patient management since the failure/relapse rates are nearly same in isolates with a canonical or disputed rpoB mutation.