By Linda on Feb 15, 2011 in Infections | comments(0)
Link: http://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/elink.fcgi?dbfrom=pubmed&id=21133691&retmode=ref&cmd=prlinks
Excerpt:
Bartonella species, which belong to the alpha-2 subgroup of Proteobacteria,
are fastidious Gram-negative bacteria that are highly adapted to their
mammalian host reservoirs. Bartonella species are responsible for different
clinical conditions affecting humans, including Carrion’s disease, cat
scratch disease, trench fever, bacillary angiomatosis, endocarditis and
peliosis hepatis. While some of these diseases can resolve spontaneously
without treatment, in other cases, the disease is fatal without antibiotic
treatment. In this article, we discuss the antibiotic susceptibility
patterns of Bartonella species, detected using several methods. We also
provide an overview of Bartonella infection in humans and animals and
discuss the antibiotic treatment recommendations for the different
infections, treatment failure and the molecular mechanism of antibiotic
resistance in these bacteria.
By Linda on Feb 9, 2011 in Infections | comments(0)
Link: http://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/elink.fcgi?dbfrom=pubmed&id=21079313&retmode=ref&cmd=prlinks
Excerpt:
Bacillary angiomatosis is a recently described infectious disease that
usually affects immunosupressed hosts with a previous history of contact
with cats. We report a rare case of bacillary angiomatosis in an
immunocompetent 59-year-old woman with no history of previous exposure to
cats, and atypical clinical features (fever and subcutaneous nodules with
ulceration on the left ankle).
Histopathology of the lesion showed extensive ulceration and reactive
tumor-like vascular proliferation of the blood vessels with swollen
endothelial cells and an inflammatory infiltrate including neutrophils and
lymphocytes in the dermis and subcutis. Staining with the Warthin-Starry
method demonstrated the presence of clustered bacilli located in the
extracellular matrix adjacent to the proliferating endothelial cells.
Diagnosis was confirmed with the detection of Bartonella spp. DNA in the
affected skin and in bone marrow using polymerase chain reaction.
By Linda on Oct 22, 2010 in Infections | comments(0)
Full article: http://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/elink.fcgi?dbfrom=pubmed&id=20833105&retmode=ref&cmd=prlinks
Excerpt:
After 2 decades of Bartonella research, knowledge on transmission
and pathology of these bacteria is still limited. Bartonella spp.
have emerged to be important pathogens in human and veterinary
medicine. For humans, B. henselae is considered to represent the
most relevant zoonotic Bartonella species and is responsible for
cat scratch disease, bacillary angiomatosis, and other disorders.
Over the years, many Bartonella species have been isolated from
humans, cats, dogs, and other mammals, and infections range from
an asymptomatic state (e.g., animal-specific species) to even
life-threatening diseases (e.g., Oroya fever). It is obvious that
the analysis of pathogenicity mechanisms underlying Bartonella
infections is needed to increase our understanding of how these
pathogens adapt to their mammalian hosts resulting in acute or
chronic diseases. Copyright (c) 2010. Published by Elsevier GmbH.
