International Journal of Infectious Diseases 46 (2016) 61–63
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International Journal of Infectious Diseases
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijid
Case Report
Bartonella henselae infection presenting with a picture of adult-onset
Still’s disease
Areum Durey a, Hea Yoon Kwon b, Jae-Hyoung Im b, Sun Myoung Lee c, JiHyeon Baek b,
Seung Baik Han a, Jae-Seung Kang d, Jin-Soo Lee b,*
a
Department of Emergency Medicine, Inha University School of Medicine, Incheon, Republic of Korea
Department of Internal Medicine, Inha University School of Medicine, 7-206, Shinheung-Dong, Jung-Gu, Incheon, 400-711, Republic of Korea
Translation Research Center, Inha University School of Medicine, Incheon, Republic of Korea
d
Department of Microbiology, Inha University School of Medicine, Incheon, Republic of Korea
b
c
A R T I C L E I N F O
Article history:
Received 17 December 2015
Received in revised form 19 January 2016
Accepted 14 March 2016
Corresponding Editor: Eskild Petersen,
Aarhus, Denmark.
Keywords:
Bartonella henselae
Bartonellosis
Adult-Onset Still’s disease
Autoimmune
S U M M A R Y
We report a patient with a clinical picture of suggestive for adult-onset Still’s Disease (ASOD) due to
Bartonella infection. A 42-year-old immunocompetent man was admitted with fever, rash, arthralgia and
sore throat. As his clinical picture suggested ASOD except unusual skin manifestation, we treated him on
steroid and ibuprofen. His fever and constitutional symptoms responded immediately within 24 hrs of
commencing therapy, yet rash and leukocytosis remained. Meanwhile, Bartonella infection was proved
by culture of bone marrow. Minocyclin treatment started combined with hydroxychloroquine sulfate
and the patient discharged with overall improvement.
ß 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Society for Infectious Diseases. This is an open
access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
1. Introduction
Bartonella henselae is a small, aerobic, intracellular Gramnegative pleomorphic bacillus. Cats are the major reservoir, with
up to half of domestic cats having antibodies. Once transmitted to
humans via cat saliva or the scratch of a cat, B. henselae invades
CD34+ hematopoietic progenitor cells, resulting in its intracellular
presence and replication in differentiated erythroid cells.1 In
immunocompetent individuals, the response to infection with B.
henselae is suppurative, producing a granulomatous disease.2
The most common manifestation of B. henselae infection is cat
scratch disease (CSD). Typical CSD is characterized by low-grade
fever and tender unilateral regional lymphadenopathy. In the
majority of cases there is a history of direct cat contact. The disease
course is often mild and self-limiting, leaving the incidence
underestimated.
The case of an immunocompetent man presenting with
autoimmune features suggestive of adult-onset Still’s disease
(AOSD) is described herein. Neither a history of cat contact nor
granulomatous lymphadenopathy was found. During work-up of
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +82 32 890 3616; fax: +82 32 882 6578.
E-mail address:
[email protected] (J.-S. Lee).
fever of unknown origin (FUO), a Bartonella infection was
confirmed by PCR of the bone marrow.
2. Case report
A 42-year-old man was referred to the emergency medical
center of Inha University Hospital complaining of fever and an
urticarial rash of 2-week duration. He also had a sore throat,
arthralgia, and a cough, which had shown no improvement
following 1 week of medications at a local clinic. His past medical
history was unremarkable except for the treatment of gastric ulcer
20 years ago. There was no history of travel, pet contact, or allergy.
His family history was negative for autoimmune conditions.
The patient’s initial blood pressure was 110/70 mmHg, pulse
was 88 beats per minute, respiratory rate was 18 breaths per
minute, and temperature was 38.9 8C. He showed pruritic
erythematous eruptions on both arms and legs and trunk.
Ophthalmological and otorhinolaryngological examinations, including fundoscopy of the eyes, were unremarkable. His chest was
clear without murmurs or crackles. No organomegaly or lymphadenopathy was found. Swelling and tenderness of the joints of
both hands was noted.
Laboratory studies disclosed the following values: leukocyte
count of 19.26 109 cells/l with 83% neutrophils, hemoglobin of
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2016.03.014
1201-9712/ß 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Society for Infectious Diseases. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
62
A. Durey et al. / International Journal of Infectious Diseases 46 (2016) 61–63
12.9 g/dl, platelet count of 138 109 cells/l, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) of 25 mm/h, C-reactive protein (CRP) level
of 12.86 mg/dl, aspartate aminotransferase (AST) of 212 IU/l,
alanine aminotransferase (ALT) of 246 IU/l, alkaline phosphatase
(ALP) of 736 IU/l, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) of 605 IU/l, total
bilirubin of 0.3 mg/dl, and creatine phosphokinase (CPK) of
636 IU/l. The Venereal Disease Research Laboratory (VDRL) test,
HIV testing, and serology for viral hepatitis were all negative.
Computed tomography of the thorax and abdomen revealed
borderline splenomegaly and a small right supraclavicular
lymph node. There were no abnormal findings for the liver or
lungs. A bone scan showed active joint lesions in both shoulders,
knees, wrists, and ankles, and in the small joints of both hands
and feet. A positron emission tomography (PET) scan showed
abnormal hypermetabolic lesions in multiple lymph nodes and
revealed hypersplenism and bone marrow expansion as well.
Biopsies of the skin, liver, bone marrow, and cervical lymph
node were performed over the clinical course.
Upon admission, broad spectrum antibiotics were started,
including levofloxacin 750 g and ceftriaxone 2 g daily, however the
patient showed no response. He was switched to doxycycline on
day 10 of hospitalization, but his rash became aggravated after
2 days. Azithromycin (500 mg/day) was substituted resulting in a
partial response, with a transient improvement in his fever and
rash. However, the azithromycin also had to be stopped on the
suspicion of side effects, due to the recurring fever and rash
combined with eosinophilia.
Additional laboratory values were reported: antistreptolysin O
(ASO) 38 IU/ml (reference range 0–160 IU/ml), procalcitonin
0.36 ng/ml (reference range 0.00–0.50 ng/ml), angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) 30.5 U/l (reference range 9.0–47.0 U/l), and
ferritin 7604 ng/ml (reference range 30–400 ng/ml). Tests for antinuclear antibody (ANA), extractable nuclear antigens, antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody, and rheumatoid factor (RF) were
negative. Repeated cultures of blood and urine were negative. An
interferon-gamma release assay for tuberculosis and serology for
Brucella, Toxoplasma, parvovirus, Orientia tsutsugamushi, Lyme
disease, and Q fever were all negative. An excisional biopsy of the
cervical lymph node showed reactive lymphoid hyperplasia
without granulomatous inflammation, and PCR for Bartonella on
this lymph node was negative. A liver biopsy showed reactive
changes, and acid-fast bacillus (AFB) staining and PCR of bone
marrow for tuberculosis were negative.
It was concluded that the patient’s symptoms were consistent
with the Yamaguchi criteria for AOSD even though the rash was not
characteristic of AOSD. The patient was started on naproxen
(1000 mg/day) on day 21 and prednisolone (30 mg/day) on day
25 after the report of the skin biopsy was received, which revealed
superficial perivascular and mild interface dermatitis. This
resulted in the prompt resolution of his fever within 24 h and
an improvement in his constitutional symptoms; however, his rash
and leukocytosis showed little improvement. Hydroxychloroquine
sulfate (300 mg/day) was added on the suggestion of the
rheumatology department.
At the authors’ institution, cell culture assays are performed
routinely for all patients with FUO. The patient’s bone marrow was
inoculated onto a monolayer of ECV304 cells. Three weeks after
inoculation, certain cytopathic effects were observed. PCR with a
universal primer set targeting 16S ribosomal DNA was performed
to identify the bacterium isolated; Bartonella was confirmed by
sequencing.3 Species-specific primer sets of the 16S–23S intergenic spacer region groEL and ssrA revealed that the isolate was
most like the B. henselae Houston-1 strain (NCBI accession number
KF 419277.1).4–6 Also, the serum IgG titer using a B. henselae strain
(FOCUS Diagnostics, USA) was 1:320. Minocycline (200 mg/day)
was added considering the patient’s history of side effects with
doxycycline and azithromycin. The patient was discharged after
5 days with an overall improvement in his condition.
3. Discussion
The clinical presentation of Bartonella infection no longer
encompasses the original typical description from 1950. As
diagnostic techniques have improved, Bartonella has been found
to be responsible for a broad range of clinical syndromes. Among
them, it has been found to be related to autoimmune conditions
and more widely reported in children: IgA nephritis,7 Guillain–
Barré syndrome,8 sarcoidosis,9 autoimmune thyroiditis,10
Henoch–Schönlein purpura,11 and juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.12
Meanwhile, it appears that only a few autoimmune features
associated with Bartonella infection have been reported in
immunocompetent adults: transverse myelitis,13 autoimmune
hemolytic anemia,14 and lastly, Bartonella endocarditis in a 39year-old woman.15 This latter case had persistent fever, an
urticarial rash, and arthralgia mimicking AOSD, as in the case
presented here, but the Bartonella infection was confirmed by PCR
of the supraclavicular lymph node.
In the present patient, the clinical diagnosis of AOSD was first
made on the basis of three major criteria (fever, arthralgia, and
leukocytosis) and four minor criteria (sore throat, splenomegaly,
abnormal liver function tests, and negative tests for ANA and RF)
being met,16 which is known to have a high sensitivity and
specificity.17 However, B. henselae was cultured from bone marrow
and the serum immunofluorescent IgG titer to B. henselae was
1:320, which was considered evidence of current infection.
Accordingly, it was concluded that the Bartonella infection had
triggered the systemic AOSD-like conditions; this conclusion was
drawn on the basis not only of the laboratory results, but also on
the clinical course, which had shown a partial response to
azithromycin and an ultimate improvement with the addition of
minocycline.
As is well known, the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases is
multifactorial, including genetic and environmental factors.
Numerous infectious agents have been proposed as potential
inciting factors for AOSD so far, but not Bartonella.18–20 This is the
first report suggesting the possibility that B. henselae may in part be
responsible for the development of AOSD by means of either a
direct inflammatory process or ‘molecular mimicry’ that triggers
the host’s autoimmune response. Further research is necessary to
determine the role of Bartonella in the pathogenesis of AOSD.
In conclusion, it is suggested that AOSD-like autoimmune
pictures should be added to the clinical syndromes of Bartonella
infection. Furthermore, Bartonella infection should be considered
during the work-up of FUO, irrespective of exposure to cats or the
presence of lymphadenopathy.21,22 Because the broad range of
clinical presentations may lead to a delayed diagnosis, early
serological testing for Bartonella in the evaluation of FUO may
allow a rapid diagnosis, thus avoiding unnecessary invasive
investigations. Also, it is notable that PCR on the bone marrow
was positive for Bartonella in the case presented, yet PCR on the
blood was negative. Given that bone marrow can harbor the
pathogen, as B. henselae invades hematopoietic progenitor cells,
this may have more diagnostic value in the work-up of Bartonella
infection.
Conflict of interest: No competing interest declared.
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