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Query: UMLS:C0023241 (Legionella)
 6,990 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Eight patients with haematologic malignancies contracted fatal invasive aspergillosis during an outbreak. Five patients were neutropenic. Bronchofiberoscopic examination with microbiology specimen brush and bronchoalveolar lavage yielded Aspergillus fumigatus in only 2/5 patients examined. The specific diagnosis reached during lifetime in 5 patients was based on a combination of invasive procedures (lung biopsy in 2, percutaneous lung puncture in 1), the presence of a lung abscess (3 patients), seroconversion (1 patient), and purulent maxillary sinusitis caused by A. fumigatus together with repeated abundant growth of A. fumigatus in the sputum (1 patient). Six patients received amphotericin B. The infection was temporarily controlled only in 2 bone marrow transplant recipients whose granulocyte counts recovered. In 3/8 patients the pneumonia was of polymicrobial aetiology, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (2 patients), Pneumocystis carinii (1 patient), and Legionella pneumophila (1 patient) being the other microbes involved. 3/4 bone marrow transplant recipients with aspergillosis had been transplanted for chronic myeloid leukaemia, supporting the previously reported association of bone marrow transplantation for chronic myeloid leukaemia and the risk of invasive aspergillosis. Improved diagnostic methods for earlier definitive diagnosis of invasive aspergillosis as well as more efficacious and less toxic antifungal agents are needed to allow early treatment.
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PMID:Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis: a diagnostic and therapeutic problem. Clinical experience with eight haematologic patients. 332 14

We reviewed records of patients with hematologic malignancy requiring mechanical ventilation (MV) from 1976 to 1985 (excluding postoperative MV less than 48 hours). There were 119 episodes in 116 patients. In-hospital mortality was 82 percent. Of 21 (18 percent) episodes survived, median duration of survival was 12 months. Survivors did not differ from nonsurvivors in age, leukocyte count, or duration of MV. Survival for chronic lymphocytic leukemia was 42 percent, for other leukemias 16 percent, Hodgkin's disease 29 percent, and non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, 6 percent. Bronchoscopy was performed in 28 patients, resulting in a diagnosis of infection, hemorrhage, or malignancy in 19 cases. Open lung biopsy (OLB) was obtained in 23 patients, yielding a diagnosis of interstitial inflammation or fibrosis (13 cases), drug effect (three), malignancy (two), hemorrhage (one), Pneumocystis (seven), aspergillosis (two), and Legionella (one). Only two patients survived following OLB. Despite intensive management and adequate diagnosis, respiratory failure in patients with hematologic malignancy carries a high mortality. Although these data may help identify groups with a limited prognosis for long-term recovery, patient care must be individualized.
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PMID:Outcome of respiratory failure in hematologic malignancy. 338 63

The rate of infectious complications differed significantly in two groups of heart transplant recipients who received different immunosuppressive regimens. Compared with patients who received conventional immunosuppression, patients treated with cyclosporine had a lower rate of infectious complications, and the contribution of infection to observed mortality was lower. Herpes simplex virus caused less morbidity and there were fewer active cytomegalovirus infections in seropositive recipients treated with cyclosporine. The incidence of bacterial pulmonary infections and associated bacteremia also decreased impressively. A decrease in nocardial infections was offset by a rise in those due to Legionella species. The frequency of aspergillosis was decreased by 54% in the cyclosporine-treated group, but half of these infections disseminated beyond the lung and such dissemination was always fatal. Infections with Pneumocystis carinii were significantly less common with cyclosporine-based immunosuppression. Screening serologic tests for toxoplasma should be done routinely and consideration given to prophylaxis in heart transplant recipients at high risk.
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PMID:Infectious complications in heart transplant recipients receiving cyclosporine and corticosteroids. 354 23

Most nosocomial pathogens cause pneumonia through the following sequence: transit to the patient on the hands of medical personnel or perhaps in food, proliferation in the nasopharynx, and subsequent pulmonary aspiration. There are three exceptional pathogens, each of particular concern as a cause of pneumonia in the immunocompromised patient, which follow atypical routes. Important recent advances in understanding these routes permit more rational preventive measures. This report examines the evidentiary basis for the following pathophysiolgic propositions about these three pathogens: Aspergillus, Pneumocystis carinii, and Legionella. Aspergillus spores are almost ubiquitous. Spore generation, except in very unusual circumstances, takes place outside the hospital. Most spores enter the hospital borne in air by infiltration or because of incomplete filtration. Air filtration systems of moderate efficiency remove Aspergillus spores. Nosocomial pulmonary and disseminated aspergillosis arises from inhalation of airborne spores. A nasopharygeal colonization intermediate step before pulmonary disease has not yet been solidly established. It is now firmly established that airborne Pneumocystic carinii transmission occurs between animals. Airborne acquisition probably occurs early in human life. However, in-hospital, person-to-person transmission has yet to be convincingly demonstrated. Most or all cases of pneumocystosis in adults are due to reactivation of endogenous pulmonary organisms. Intensive diagnostic efforts reveal that Legionella is a common cause of community-acquired and nosocomial pneumonia in hospitals where it had not previously been recognized. However, there are at least a few hospitals where it is an uncommon source of pneumonia. Several hospitals have demonstrated a temporal association between the presence of Legionella in hot water systems and nosocomial cases of Legionella pneumonia. The mechanism or mechanisms of transmission to the patient remain to be delineated. It is also not determined if all hospital hot water systems should be maintained Legionella free.
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PMID:Extrinsic risk factors for pneumonia in the patient at high risk of infection. 637 78

Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA), although unusual, has been recognized in the immunocompetent host. Several cases of IPA with rapidly progressive respiratory failure have been reported in patients receiving short-term corticosteroid therapy for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Atypical pneumonia caused by dual infection with Legionella pneumophila and Mycoplasma pneumoniae has also been reported. We report an unusual case of simultaneous L pneumophila pneumonia and IPA in an asthma patient with suspected allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis newly treated with corticosteroids.
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PMID:Simultaneous legionellosis and invasive aspergillosis in an immunocompetent patient newly treated with corticosteroids. 825 95

Pulmonary infections are a significant cause of morbidity after liver transplantation; Gram-negative bacilli, cytomegalovirus, and Pneumocystis carinii were the usual pulmonary pathogens in the earlier studies in liver transplant recipients receiving cyclosporine. We prospectively assessed the impact of pulmonary infection in 101 consecutive liver transplant recipients receiving the new immunosuppressive agent tacrolimus (FK506). Fifteen percent (15/101) of the patients had 19 episodes of pneumonia; 58% (11/19) of the pneumonias were bacterial, 37% (7/19) were fungal, and 5% (1/19) were protozoal (Toxoplasma gondii). Twenty-seven percent of the bacterial pneumonias were due to Legionella. None of the patients had cytomegalovirus or P carinii pneumonia. Seven percent (7/10) of the study patients had fungal pneumonitis; 4% had invasive aspergillosis and 3% had cryptococcosis. Mortality was significantly higher (53%, 8/15) for patients with pneumonia than for patients without pneumonia (10%, 9/86, P = 0.0004). Only fungal pneumonias were the direct cause of death; 63% (5/8) of the deaths were in patients with fungal pneumonitis. Our data suggest a changing pattern of microbial etiologies of pneumonitis in the era of modern immunosuppressive agents. We show that P carinii pneumonia and cytomegalovirus can be effectively curtailed with appropriate prophylaxis. Fungal infections, on the contrary, not only constituted a major proportion of the pneumonia, but also carried the highest pneumonia-associated mortality. Legionella infections can be overlooked unless specialized laboratory methodology (cultured on selective media, urinary antigen) are applied routinely on all cases of pneumonia. We recommend routine culture on the water supply for Legionella in all transplant centers.
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PMID:Pulmonary infections in liver transplant recipients receiving tacrolimus. Changing pattern of microbial etiologies. 861 Mar 49

Damage to local and systemic host defenses of the lung makes the immunocompromised patient vulnerable to inhaled microorganisms. When a pulmonary infiltrate occurs, the array of possibilities is very large including conventional and opportunistic agents. The type of underlying disease and its associated immunodeficiency allow a high degree of accurate pathogen prediction. Neutropenia is associated with Gram-negative bacilli pneumonia. Prolonged neutropenia increases the risk of invasive aspergillosis and other unusual mycotic agents. Cellular immunodeficiency is associated with intracellular microorganisms including Mycobacteria spp., Nocardia spp., Legionella spp., Rhodococcus equi, cytomegalovirus, Strongyloides stercoralis, Toxoplasma gondii, Histoplasma capsulatum, Coccidioides spp., Cryptococcus neoformans and Pneumocystis carinii, parasites such as Toxoplasma gondii and Strongyloides stercoralis, and virus such as cytomegalovirus, Herpes simplex or zoster, adenovirus, respiratory syncitial virus and measles. Humoral immunodeficiency predisposes to infection with encapsulated pathogens such as S. pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae. Chest computerized tomography scan and bronchoalveolar lavage are essential procedures for diagnosis. However, despite continuous progress in diagnostic methods, the specific etiology remains often unknown. Successful treatment depends on the type of pathogen, status of host defences and early adequate choice of antibiotic. Enhancement of host defences with growth factors and cytokines may decrease the incidence and improve the final outcome of respiratory infections in the immunocompromised host.
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PMID:[Respiratory infections during chemotherapy-induced aplasia]. 1142 9

This report updates, expands, and replaces the previously published CDC "Guideline for Prevention of Nosocomial Pneumonia". The new guidelines are designed to reduce the incidence of pneumonia and other severe, acute lower respiratory tract infections in acute-care hospitals and in other health-care settings (e.g., ambulatory and long-term care institutions) and other facilities where health care is provided. Among the changes in the recommendations to prevent bacterial pneumonia, especially ventilator-associated pneumonia, are the preferential use of oro-tracheal rather than naso-tracheal tubes in patients who receive mechanically assisted ventilation, the use of noninvasive ventilation to reduce the need for and duration of endotracheal intubation, changing the breathing circuits of ventilators when they malfunction or are visibly contaminated, and (when feasible) the use of an endotracheal tube with a dorsal lumen to allow drainage of respiratory secretions; no recommendations were made about the use of sucralfate, histamine-2 receptor antagonists, or antacids for stress-bleeding prophylaxis. For prevention of health-care--associated Legionnaires disease, the changes include maintaining potable hot water at temperatures not suitable for amplification of Legionella spp., considering routine culturing of water samples from the potable water system of a facility's organ-transplant unit when it is done as part of the facility's comprehensive program to prevent and control health-care--associated Legionnaires disease, and initiating an investigation for the source of Legionella spp. when one definite or one possible case of laboratory-confirmed health-care--associated Legionnaires disease is identified in an inpatient hemopoietic stem-cell transplant (HSCT) recipient or in two or more HSCT recipients who had visited an outpatient HSCT unit during all or part of the 2-10 day period before illness onset. In the section on aspergillosis, the revised recommendations include the use of a room with high-efficiency particulate air filters rather than laminar airflow as the protective environment for allogeneic HSCT recipients and the use of high-efficiency respiratory-protection devices (e.g., N95 respirators) by severely immunocompromised patients when they leave their rooms when dust-generating activities are ongoing in the facility. In the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) section, the new recommendation is to determine, on a case-by-case basis, whether to administer monoclonal antibody (palivizumab) to certain infants and children aged <24 months who were born prematurely and are at high risk for RSV infection. In the section on influenza, the new recommendations include the addition of oseltamivir (to amantadine and rimantadine) for prophylaxis of all patients without influenza illness and oseltamivir and zanamivir (to amantadine and rimantadine) as treatment for patients who are acutely ill with influenza in a unit where an influenza outbreak is recognized. In addition to the revised recommendations, the guideline contains new sections on pertussis and lower respiratory tract infections caused by adenovirus and human parainfluenza viruses and refers readers to the source of updated information about prevention and control of severe acute respiratory syndrome.
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PMID:Guidelines for preventing health-care--associated pneumonia, 2003: recommendations of CDC and the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee. 1504 56

Legionella pneumophila is an important cause of community-acquired and nosocomial pneumonia. We report on a patient who simultaneously developed L. pneumophila serogroup 8 pneumonia and Aspergillus fumigatus lung abscesses. Despite appropriate treatments, Aspergillus disease progressed with metastasis. Coinfections caused by L. pneumophila and A. fumigatus remain exceptional. In apparently immunocompetent patients, corticosteroid therapy is a key risk factor for aspergillosis.
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PMID:Fatal coinfection with Legionella pneumophila serogroup 8 and Aspergillus fumigatus. 1794 54

We describe the case of a 66-year-old man with a culture-proven Legionella pneumonia after kidney transplantation. The patient developed the infection 15 days after discharge from a university hospital. Legionella pneumonia caused by Legionella pneumophila serogroup 5/10 was established by positive direct fluorescence assay, positive urinary-antigen detection and isolation of the causative agent. The infection was successfully treated by giving appropriate antibiotics, but the further course was complicated by invasive aspergillosis, cytomegalovirus pneumonia, failure of the transplanted kidney and development of septic anaemia. Four months after the diagnosis of Legionella pneumonia the patient died of multi-organ failure. The microbiological and epidemiological investigation revealed that strains from the water supply of the patient's private home were indistinguishable from the patient's isolate by amplified fragment length polymorphism analysis and sequence-based typing (SBT). Unrelated strains of serogroups 4, 5, 8 and 10 from the Dresden strain collection were of different SBT types. Thus, SBT is a very useful tool for epidemiological investigation of infections by L. pneumophila serogroups other than serogroup 1.
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PMID:Community-acquired Legionnaires' disease caused by Legionella pneumophila serogroup 10 linked to the private home. 1820 93


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