Fatal disseminated Acanthamoeba lenticulata infection in a heart transplant patient

Stéphane Barete; Alain Combes; Johan F de Jonckheere; Annick Datry; Shaïda Varnous; Valérie Martinez; Sara García Ptacek; Eric Caumes; Frédérique Capron; Camille Francès; Claude Gibert; Olivier Chosidow

doi:10.3201/eid1305.061347

Fatal disseminated Acanthamoeba lenticulata infection in a heart transplant patient

Emerg Infect Dis. 2007 May;13(5):736-8. doi: 10.3201/eid1305.061347.

Authors

Stéphane Barete¹, Alain Combes, Johan F de Jonckheere, Annick Datry, Shaïda Varnous, Valérie Martinez, Sara García Ptacek, Eric Caumes, Frédérique Capron, Camille Francès, Claude Gibert, Olivier Chosidow

Affiliation

¹ Department of Dermatology and Allergy, Hôpital Tenon, Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Paris, France. [email protected]

Abstract

We report a fatal case of disseminated acanthamebiasis caused by Acanthamoeba lenticulata (genotype T5) in a 39-year-old heart transplant recipient. The diagnosis was based on skin histopathologic results and confirmed by isolation of the ameba from involved skin and molecular analysis of a partial 18S rRNA gene sequence (DF3).

Publication types

Case Reports

MeSH terms

Acanthamoeba / classification
Acanthamoeba / genetics
Acanthamoeba / pathogenicity*
Adult
Amebiasis* / diagnosis
Amebiasis* / immunology
Amebiasis* / pathology
Animals
DNA, Ribosomal
Fatal Outcome
Heart Transplantation / immunology*
Humans
Immunocompromised Host*
Male
Molecular Sequence Data
Skin Diseases, Parasitic / diagnosis
Skin Diseases, Parasitic / genetics
Skin Diseases, Parasitic / pathology*

Substances

DNA, Ribosomal