11/72. Intrafamilial spread of highly virulent staphylococcus aureus strains carrying the gene for Panton-Valentine leukocidin. Necrotizing pneumonia caused by Staphylococcus aureus carrying the gene for Panton-Valentine leukocidin is a newly described disease entity. We report 2 cases with intrafamilial spread. ( info) |
12/72. life-threatening hemoptysis in adults with community-acquired pneumonia due to Panton-Valentine leukocidin-secreting Staphylococcus aureus. Three new consecutive cases of life-threatening hemoptysis in adults with community-acquired pneumonia due to Panton-Valentine leukocidin-secreting Staphylococcus aureus are presented, focusing on the particular clinical presentation of this new entity. Between December 1999 and March 2001, three adults aged from 23 to 67 years were admitted to our respiratory intensive care unit for massive hemoptysis and septic shock associated with community-acquired Staphylococcus aureus pneumonia. Isolates were sent to the Centre National de Reference des Toxemies Staphylococciques in Lyon, france, where they were found to secrete Panton-Valentive leukocidin. The clinical course was similar in the three patients, with massive hemoptysis and septic shock necessitating mechanical ventilation. Two patients died rapidly; necropsy showed pulmonary vascular necrosis in one of them. The third patient recovered after appropriate antibiotic therapy. Leukocidin/neutrophil interactions in the pulmonary vasculature may cause severe hemoptysis in patients with community-acquired Staphylococcus aureus pneumonia secreting Panton-Valentine leukocidin. adult patients with massive hemoptysis and suspected community-acquired pneumonia should receive antibiotic regimens covering Staphylococcus aureus. ( info) |
13/72. Prosthesis endocarditis: treatment of a case occurring five years after a Rastelli-Ross operation. A severe staphylococcal septicemia originating from an unknown focus occurred in a 17-year-old patient who had undergone a Rastelli-Ross operation 5 years earlier. The clinical course was complicated by extensive bilateral pneumonia, diffuse intravascular coagulation, and glomerulonephritis. After 4 weeks of intensive conservative treatment, including a daily regimen of 16 Gm. of cloxacillin, the patient was operated upon for a rapidly progressive false aneurysm, which had resulted from dehiscence of the anastomosis between the prosthesis and ventricle. The excised prosthesis proved to be sterile. The postoperative course was uneventful. cloxacillin treatment was continued for 6 months, initially parenterally and later orally. After discontinuation of therapy, no signs of infection have occurred. Right-sided intracardiac or intravascular prosthetic material may be particularly susceptible to infections originating from the body surface. ( info) |
| An elderly lady was admitted to hospital for elective resection of an adenocarcinoma of the colon. Following an anastomotic leak she developed intra-abdominal sepsis and underwent abdominal drainage of pus. During recovery from her second operation, she developed pneumonia and a bacteraemia due to methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). She was treated with vancomycin and co-trimoxazole and survived without further sequelae. Details of the development and treatment of this case are discussed. Procedures for the control and eradication of MRSA infections in hospitals are reviewed. ( info) |
15/72. Clinical failure of vancomycin treatment of Staphylococcus aureus infection in a tertiary care hospital in southern brazil. We describe a case of clinical failure of vancomycin treatment of Staphylococcus aureus infection and the laboratory characteristics of the organism in a tertiary referral university hospital in southern brazil. An 11-month-old male patient presented with pneumonia and S. aureus was isolated from his respiratory tract. Initial treatment with oxacillin and gentamicin was ineffective. Vancomycin was added to the regimen as the patient worsened, but after the 30(th) day of vancomycin treatment S. aureus was isolated from the blood. This isolate had a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) for vancomycin of 4 mg/mL. After pre-incubation with vancomycin the isolate displayed an increase in the expression of vancomycin resistance and colonies grew in the presence of up to 12 mg/mL vancomycin. Based on these results, and considering that the patient had not responded to vancomycin, the isolate was considered to be S. aureus heteroresistant to vancomycin (SAHV). The SAHV proved to be similar, based on dna macrorestriction analysis, to methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA) isolates from other patients in the hospital who had responded to vancomycin treatment. Our findings underline the need to improve methods in the clinical laboratory to detect the emergence of S. aureus clinically resistant to vancomycin. The fact that the isolate emerged in the blood 30 days after vancomycin treatment was initiated suggests that the organism was originally an MRSA that had acquired the ability to circumvent the mechanism of action of vancomycin. ( info) |
16/72. Fatal pneumonia caused by corynebacterium group JK after treatment of Staphylococcus aureus pneumonia. A 76-year-old man who was admitted to the hospital because of chronic renal insufficiency and chronic hepatitis died of corynebacterium group JK pneumonia, after showing a slight improvement by treatment of Staphylococcus aureus with sulbactam/cefoperazone and minocycline. Transtracheal aspiration (TTA) just before his death revealed numerous gram-positive bacilli phagocytized by many neutrophils and more than 10(8) colony forming units (CFU)/ml of corynebacterium group JK. A drug susceptibility test showed corynebacterium group JK was resistant to many antibiotics, with the exception of vancomycin and amikacin. ( info) |
17/72. Right-sided diaphragmatic hernia masquerading as staphylococcal pneumonia. A 9-month-old infant who was diagnosed to have right-sided diaphragmatic hernia with no other associated anomalies, is being reported here. He had presented with cough for one month and respiratory difficulty for one-week duration and history of bilious vomiting two days prior to admission. His chest X-ray showed multiple lucent shadows in the right lower zone in A-P and lateral views, with not very well defined diaphragm on the same side. A diagnosis of staphylococcal pneumonia was considered but with clinical and radiological picture, a right-sided diaphragmatic hernia was strongly suspected which was confirmed by doing fluoroscopy and CT-scan of the chest. He underwent a successful correction of the defect. So radiological finding of pleural effusion with displacement of mediastinum to the left and the presence of bowel gas high in the right upper quadrant should alert the possibility of a right-sided Bochdalek hernia. ( info) |
| Pediatric deaths due to community-acquired methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus are rare. We describe the case of 2-y-old boy with fever and cough followed by comatose state with deteriorated respiration; the boy died of severe sepsis and necrotizing pneumonia. The etiological agent was community-acquired methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, carrying a type IV staphylococcal mecA gene cassette and the Panton-Valentine Leukocidin gene. ( info) |
19/72. A renal transplant patient with intractable hiccups and review of the literature. Intractable hiccups in transplanted patients may be caused by various medical conditions including infections. We report a case of a 44-year-old man who suffered from intractable hiccups after cadaveric kidney transplantation. We identified 3 different hiccup periods with different causes: 1) steroid and anesthetics use, 2) severe ulcerose herpetic and mycotic esophagitis, and 3) pleuropneumonia caused by nosocomial methicillin-resistant staphylococcus epidermidis and pulmonary abscess requiring thoracic surgery. ( info) |
20/72. Necrotizing staphylococcal pneumonia in a neonate. Hospitalized neonates are commonly colonized soon after birth with Staphylococcus aureus. The majority of neonates do not develop infectious sequelae; however, premature neonates appear to be more susceptible to serious infections, such as pneumonia. We report a case of an extremely low birth weight infant who developed necrotizing pneumonia due to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcal aureus (MRSA). The MRSA isolate from this neonate is identical to the strains that have been causing primarily community-associated skin and soft tissue infections. The severe course of this patient may be attributed to the presence of the Panton-Valentine leukocidin gene, a well-known virulence factor leading to soft tissue and pulmonary infections. ( info) |