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Query: UMLS:C0014118 (endocarditis)
 15,629 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The recent discovery of the bacterium Bartonella henselae was mainly due to the development of molecular biology techniques adapted to microbial diagnosis and to the description of new human diseases linked to Aids. About 10% of pet cats and 33% of stray cats harbour that bacterium in their blood. In immunocompetent patients, that bacterium is responsible for human cat scratch disease, characterized essentially by a localized lymph nodes enlargement in the vicinity of the entry site of the bacteria. This disease occurs more likely in pet cats less than 1-year-old and infested with fleas. The bacterium is transmitted to humans by scratches or bites; the role of fleas is possible, but is not yet documented. In 5 to 13% of cases, the cat scratch disease appears as more severe, including health impairment, hepatitis, Parinaud's oculo-glandular syndrome, neurological complications or stellate retinitis. In immunocompromised patients, B. henselae is responsible for various clinical presentations: bacillary angiomatosis, bacillary peliosis, recurrent or persistent bacteremia or endocarditis. Diagnosis of infections due to B. henselae can be performed by serological specific testing with sensitivity and specificity values ranging from 75 to 100%. Cultivation of the bacterium is fastidious, particularly in cases of cat scratch disease. The most efficient diagnostic test is the in vitro DNA amplification which has the drawback to require a lymph node sample. Antibiotics are usually inefficient for the treatment of cat scratch disease. By contrast, in immunocompromised patients, these infections are successfully treated for a more or less long time by macrolides or tetracyclines or rifampin.
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PMID:[Bartonellosis: I. Bartonella henselae]. 985 27

In addition to Bartonella henselae, five other Bartonella species were involved in human pathology. As for B. henselae, ectoparasites seem to be responsible for the transmission of most or all these bacterial species. B. bacilliformis is responsible for Carrion's disease that occurs in some valleys of Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. This disease is transmitted by biting of infected sandflies. The bacterial reservoir is constituted by humans only. That disease occurs either as an acute form with severe infectious hemolytic anemia (or Oroya fever), or as benign cutaneous tumors, also called verruga peruana. Healthy blood carriers of the bacterium exist. Trench fever was described during the First World War. This non-lethal disease is constituted of recurrent febrile attacks associated particularly with osseous pains. The causative agent of the disease is B. quintana, transmitted by the body louse. Humans seem to be the reservoir of that bacterium. In some patients, B. quintana can be responsible for endocarditis, bacillary angiomatosis and chronic or recurrent bacteremia. Other human infections due to Bartonella sp. have been described: B. vinsonii, isolated from blood of small rodents, and B. elizabethae, the reservoir of which is currently unknown, can be responsible for endocardites. B. clarridgeiae (isolated from blood of 5% of pet cats and 17% of stray cats) may be responsible for human cat scratch disease. All these bartonelloses are diagnosed by non-standard blood culture or by in vitro DNA amplification or by serological testing. Their treatment requires tetracyclines or chloramphenicol or macrolides.
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PMID:[Bartonellosis. II. Other Bartonella responsible for human diseases]. 992 Sep 64

To evaluate different methods for strain differentiation, 10 isolates of Aspergillus terreus from Germany and two epidemiologically unrelated strains were investigated. The sources of the isolates were patients with cystic fibrosis (4), immunosuppression (2), otitis externa (2), sinusitis (1) and endocarditis (1). Environmental isolates were obtained from a contaminated cell culture and from soil. The isolates did not differ in their macroscopic and microscopic morphology, in their protein patterns analysed by SDS-PAGE and in their susceptibility to amphotericin B and itraconazole. The RFLP analysis of total genomic DNA digested by EcoRI resulted in patterns that were too faint for interpretation. However, after hybridisation of the digested DNA with a short DNA probe of repetitive sequence, six different patterns were found. Based on the patterns of the randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) with three primers, nine different genotypes were discriminate. RAPD patterns discriminated the epidemiologically unrelated reference strains (endocarditis isolate from Thailand, soil isolate from the USA) and the isolates from Germany. It is concluded that, in contrast to the phenotypic methods, the analysis of RAPD patterns is useful for strain differentiation of A. terreus.
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PMID:Value of different methods for the characterisation of Aspergillus terreus strains. 998 44

Chronic Q fever is most commonly associated with culture-negative endocarditis and less frequently with infection of vascular grafts, infection of aneurysms, hepatitis, pulmonary disease, osteomyelitis, and neurological abnormalities. We report a case of chronic sternal wound infection, polyclonal gammopathy, and mixed cryoglobulinemia in which Q fever endocarditis was subsequently diagnosed. Polymerase chain reaction analysis of the wound tissue was positive for Coxiella burnetii DNA, and treatment of the endocarditis resulted in prompt healing of the wound. Chronic Q fever can occur without epidemiological risk factors for C. burnetii exposure and can produce multisystem inflammatory dysfunction, aberrations of the immune system, and persistent wound infections.
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PMID:Chronic sternal wound infection and endocarditis with Coxiella burnetii. 1045 Nov 61

Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae is a causal agent of swine erysipelas, which is of economic importance in the swine industry by virtue of causing acute septicemia, chronic arthritis, and endocarditis. However, little is known about the genetic properties of its protective antigens. Recently, a surface protective antigen (SpaA) gene was identified from serotype 2 in a mouse model. We cloned spaA from virulent strain Fujisawa (serotype 1a) and determined that the N-terminal 342 amino acids without C-terminal repeats of 20 amino acids have the ability to elicit protection in mice. Fusions of 342 amino acids of Fujisawa SpaA and histidine hexamer (HisSpa1.0) protected pigs against challenge with both serotype 1 and serotype 2, the most important serotypes in the swine industry. Pigs immunized with HisSpa1.0 reacted well with both HisSpa1.0 and intact SpaA by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and immunoblotting. Serum collected at the time of challenge from a pig immunized with HisSpa1. 0 markedly enhanced the in vitro phagocytic and killing activity of pig neutrophils against the bacteria. DNA sequences of protective regions of spaA genes from five strains of serotypes 1 and 2 were almost identical. The full DNA sequences also seemed to be conserved among strains of all 12 serotype reference strains harboring the spaA gene by restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of PCR products. These results indicates that SpaA is a common protective antigen of serotypes 1 and 2 of E. rhusiopathiae in swine and will be a useful tool for development of new types of vaccines and diagnostic tools for effective control of the disease.
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PMID:Truncated surface protective antigen (SpaA) of Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae serotype 1a elicits protection against challenge with serotypes 1a and 2b in pigs. 1045 77

Cardiac arrhythmias, endocarditis, or myocarditis was identified in 12 dogs, of which 11 were seroreactive to Bartonella vinsonii subspecies berkhoffii antigens. Historical abnormalities were highly variable but frequently included substantial weight loss, syncope, collapse, or sudden death. Fever was an infrequently detected abnormality. Cardiac disease was diagnosed following an illness of short duration in most dogs, but a protracted illness of at least 6 months' duration was reported for four dogs. Valvular endocarditis was diagnosed echocardiographically or histologically in eight dogs, two of which also had moderate to severe multifocal myocarditis. Four dogs lacking definitive evidence of endocarditis were included because of seroreactivity to B. vinsonii antigens and uncharacterized heart murmurs and/or arrhythmias. Alpha proteobacteria were not isolated from the blood by either conventional or lysis centrifugation blood culture techniques. Using PCR amplification and DNA sequencing of a portion of the 16S rRNA gene, B. vinsonii was identified in the blood or heart valves of three dogs. DNA sequence alignment of PCR amplicons derived from blood or tissue samples from seven dogs clustered among members of the alpha subdivision of the Proteobacteria and suggested the possibility of involvement of one or more alpha proteobacteria; however, because of the limited quantity of sequence, the genus could not be identified. Serologic or molecular evidence of coinfection with tick-transmitted pathogens, including Ehrlichia canis, Babesia canis, Babesia gibsonii, or spotted fever group rickettsiae, was obtained for seven dogs. We conclude that B. vinsonii subsp. berkhoffii and closely related species of alpha proteobacteria are an important, previously unrecognized cause of arrhythmias, endocarditis, myocarditis, syncope, and sudden death in dogs.
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PMID:Bartonella vinsonii subsp. berkhoffii and related members of the alpha subdivision of the Proteobacteria in dogs with cardiac arrhythmias, endocarditis, or myocarditis. 1052 64

It is now established that two species of Bartonella, namely, Bartonella henselae and B. quintana, cause bacillary angiomatosis in human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients. In addition, B. henselae causes cat scratch disease and B. quintana, B. henselae, and B. elizabethae can cause bacteremia and endocarditis in immunocompetent persons. We have developed a PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism-based assay for direct detection and identification to species level of Bartonella in clinical specimens. This is accomplished by PCR amplification of Bartonella DNA using primers derived from conserved regions of the gene carrying the 16S ribosomal DNA, followed by restriction analysis using DdeI and MseI restriction endonucleases. We amplified a Bartonella genus-specific 296-bp fragment from 25 clinical samples obtained from 25 different individuals. Restriction analysis of amplicons showed that identical patterns were seen from digestion of B. henselae and B. quintana amplicons with DdeI, whereas a different unique pattern was seen by using the same enzyme with B. vinsonii and B. elizabethae. With MseI digestion, B. henselae and B. vinsonii gave nearly identical patterns while B. quintana and B. elizabethae gave a different pattern. By combining the restriction analysis data generated with MseI and DdeI, unique "signature" restriction patterns characteristic for each species were obtained. These patterns were useful in identifying the Bartonella species associated with each tissue specimen.
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PMID:Identification of Bartonella species directly in clinical specimens by PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of a 16S rRNA gene fragment. 1056 29

Q fever is a widespread zoonosis caused by the obligate intracellular bacterium Coxiella burnetii. Although this highly virulent organism is most concentrated in mammals during parturition, there are few reports on the manifestations of perinatal Q fever in the human and animal host. The affinity of C. burnetii to pregnancy and its abortifacient potential were investigated in a murine animal model. Intraperitoneal infection of female BALB/c mice with C. burnetii, followed by repeated pregnancies over a 2-year period, resulted in persistent infection associated with abortion and perinatal death, with a statistically significant decrease in viable offspring. In addition, endocarditis occurred in 2 of the adult animals, and C. burnetii antigen and DNA were detected in their heart valves. Taken together, these results demonstrate the abortifacient potential of C. burnetii and the increased risk of persistent infection and endocarditis in pregnant mice, probably related to a decline in cellular immunity during pregnancy.
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PMID:Repeated pregnancies in BALB/c mice infected with Coxiella burnetii cause disseminated infection, resulting in stillbirth and endocarditis. 1060 66

Streptococcus bovis is a nonenterococcal, group D streptococcus which has been identified as a causative agent for serious human infections, including endocarditis, bacteremia, and septic arthritis. Several cases of adult S. bovis meningitis have been reported, usually in association with underlying disease. In the neonatal period, it is an uncommon agent of meningitis. We report, to our knowledge, the third documented case of neonatal S. bovis meningitis in the English language literature. As in the previous cases, this neonate showed no anatomical or congenital immunologic lesion which might be expected to predispose the patient to meningitis. Sequencing of the 16S ribosomal DNA gene was performed and a new PCR test was used to secure a more reliable identification of the strain.
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PMID:Streptococcus bovis meningitis in an infant. 1061 45

Streptococcus bovis has been identified as a causative agent in humans for a variety of diseases, including endocarditis, meningitis, and septicemia. Identification of S. bovis strains of human origin in clinical settings has been problematic due to variations in biochemical tests as compared to ruminal strains of S. bovis, and other streptococcal species. DNA-DNA hybridization with chromosomal DNA from various S. bovis strains indicates that strains of human origin are different from those of ruminal origin. Specific probes have been designed from S. bovis 16S rDNA gene sequences that differentiate strains of human and ruminal origin by direct hybridization and PCR analyses. These techniques now allow for rapid identification of S. bovis strains for clinical and other scientific investigations.
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PMID:Development of molecular methods for identification of Streptococcus bovis from human and ruminal origins. 1062 Jun 72


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