The body louse, Pediculus humanus humanus, is a strict human parasite, living and multiplying in clothing. Louse infestation is associated with cold weather and a lack of hygiene. Three pathogenic bacteria are transmitted by the body louse. Borrelia recurrentis is a spirochete, the agent of relapsing fever, recently cultured on axenic medium. Historically, massive outbreaks have occurred in Eur...

Members of the genus Bartonella (formerly Rochalimaea) were virtually unknown to modern-day clinicians and microbiologists until they were associated with opportunistic infections in AIDS patients about 6 years ago. Since that time, Bartonella species have been associated with cat scratch disease, bacillary angiomatosis, and a variety of other disease syndromes. Clinical presentation of infecti...

Musculoskeletal manifestations of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are common and are sometimes the initial presentation of the disease. Knowledge of the conditions affecting muscle, bone, and joints in HIV-infected patients is essential for successful management. Myopathies may be caused by pyogenic infection (eg, pyomyositis), idiopathic inflammation (eg, polymyositis), or drug effect (...

We applied multispacer typing (MST) by incorporating 9 variable intergenic spacers to Bartonella henselae DNA detected in lymph node biopsy specimens from 70 patients with cat-scratch disease (CSD), in cardiac valve specimens from 2 patients with endocarditis, and in 3 human isolates from patients with bacillary angiomatosis, CSD, and endocarditis. Sixteen MST genotypes were found, 5 previously...

Bartonella henselae is a recently recognized pathogenic bacterium associated with cat scratch disease, bacillary angiomatosis, and bacillary peliosis. This study describes the cloning, sequencing, and characterization of an antigenic autotransporter gene from B. henselae. A cloned 6.0-kb BclI-EcoRI DNA fragment expresses a 120-kDa B. henselae protein immunoreactive with 21.2% of sera from patie...

Endothelial cells distinguished by their epithelioid morphology have been recognized for many years. Rosai first characterized them as “histiocytoid” in appearance in 1979 and soon thereafter they became known by the more popularized term "epithelioid". By the early and mid 1980's this nomenclature was incorporated into classification schemes of epithelioid vascular tumors that included reactiv...

Cat scratch disease has been reported very rarely in cardiac transplant recipients. In a review of 1073 episodes of infection in 620 heart transplant patients over a 16 year period, only one case of infection secondary to Bartonella henselae was documented. Another case of hepatosplenic bacillary angiomatosis from B. henselae was reported 2 decades ago in a heart transplant recipient who had pr...

The genus Bartonella comprises several important human pathogens that cause a wide range of clinical manifestations: cat-scratch disease, trench fever, Carrion's disease, bacteremia with fever, bacillary angiomatosis and peliosis, endocarditis, and neuroretinitis. Common features of bartonellae include transmission by blood-sucking arthropods and the specific interaction with endothelial cells ...

BACKGROUND Shortened (12 months) multidrug multibacillary regimen (MDT MBR) was implemented in India in 1998, however there is yet a paucity of crucial data on its long-term outcome. OBJECTIVE To assess the efficacy of 12 months MDT MBR in multibacillary (MB) patients at our centre. DESIGN This was a retrospective study undertaken analysing the clinic records of 1210 patients registered at ...