Parmentier, Laurent; Garzoni, Christian; Antille, Christophe; Kaiser, Laurent; Ninet, Béatrice; Borradori, Luca (2008). Value of a novel Neisseria meningitidis--specific polymerase chain reaction assay in skin biopsy specimens as a diagnostic tool in chronic meningococcemia. Archives of dermatology, 144(6), pp. 770-3. Chicago, Ill.: American Medical Association 10.1001/archderm.144.6.770
Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)BACKGROUND: Chronic meningococcemia (CM) is a diagnostic challenge. Skin lesions are frequent but in most cases nonspecific. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based diagnosis has been validated in blood and cerebrospinal fluid for acute Neisseria meningitidis infection, in patients in whom routine microbiologic tests have failed to isolate the bacteria. In 2 patients with CM, we established the diagnosis by a newly developed PCR-based approach performed on skin biopsy specimens. OBSERVATIONS: Two patients presented with fever together with systemic and cutaneous manifestations suggestive of CM. Although findings from blood cultures remained negative, we were able to identify N meningitidis in the skin lesions by a newly developed PCR assay. In 1 patient, an N meningitidis strain of the same serogroup was also isolated from a throat swab specimen. Both patients rapidly improved after appropriate antibiotherapy. CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, we report the first cases of CM diagnosed by PCR testing on skin biopsy specimens. It is noteworthy that, although N meningitidis-specific PCR is highly sensitive in blood and cerebrospinal fluid in acute infections, our observations underscore the usefulness of PCR performed on skin lesions for the diagnosis of chronic N meningitidis infections. Whenever possible, this approach should be systematically employed in patients for whom N meningitidis infection cannot be confirmed by routine microbiologic investigations.
Item Type: |
Journal Article (Further Contribution) |
|---|---|
Division/Institute: |
04 Faculty of Medicine > Department of Haematology, Oncology, Infectious Diseases, Laboratory Medicine and Hospital Pharmacy (DOLS) > Clinic of Infectiology |
UniBE Contributor: |
Garzoni, Christian |
ISSN: |
0003-987X |
ISBN: |
18559767 |
Publisher: |
American Medical Association |
Language: |
English |
Submitter: |
Factscience Import |
Date Deposited: |
04 Oct 2013 15:06 |
Last Modified: |
05 Dec 2022 14:20 |
Publisher DOI: |
10.1001/archderm.144.6.770 |
PubMed ID: |
18559767 |
Web of Science ID: |
000256796200009 |
URI: |
https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/28691 (FactScience: 125188) |
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