Dataset Information

Pulmonary Clostridium perfringens: Seeding Beyond the Gastrointestinal Tract.

ABSTRACT: Clostridia perfringens infection outside the gastrointestinal system is rare. Here, we report on a 75-year-old man with history of end-stage renal disease presenting after a syncopal event with lactic acidosis, leukocytosis, and mild hyper-bilirubinemia. Chest imaging revealed a loculated, left-sided pleural effusion; diagnostic thoracentesis identified Clostridia perfringens, consistent with an empyema. Video-assisted thoracic left lung decortication was performed; tissue culture also speciated Clostridia perfringens. Further imaging revealed concomitant acute cholecystitis, suggesting hematogenous seeding or transdiaphragmatic extension of Clostridia perfringens to pleural space from an abdominal source. The patient was successfully managed with laparoscopic cholecystectomy and discharged on a one-month course of amoxicillin-sulbactam. This case highlights the potential for Clostridia perfringens to produce a pleuropulmonary infection, necessitating timely diagnosis and intervention, to improve patient outcomes.

SUBMITTER: Delungahawatta T

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10932497 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Pulmonary Clostridium perfringens: Seeding Beyond the Gastrointestinal Tract.

Delungahawatta Thilini T Rao Shiavax J SJ Wolff Marcos M Haas Christopher J CJ

Journal of community hospital internal medicine perspectives 20240112 1

Clostridia perfringens infection outside the gastrointestinal system is rare. Here, we report on a 75-year-old man with history of end-stage renal disease presenting after a syncopal event with lactic acidosis, leukocytosis, and mild hyper-bilirubinemia. Chest imaging revealed a loculated, left-sided pleural effusion; diagnostic thoracentesis identified Clostridia perfringens, consistent with an empyema. Video-assisted thoracic left lung decortication was performed; tissue culture ...[more]

PMID: 38482098

Similar Datasets

Project description:Clostridium perfringens is a gastrointestinal pathogen capable of causing disease in a variety of hosts. Necrotic enteritis in chickens is caused by C. perfringens strains that produce the pore-forming toxin NetB, the major virulence factor for this disease. Like many other C. perfringens toxins and antibiotic resistance genes, NetB is encoded on a conjugative plasmid. Conjugative transfer of the netB-containing plasmid pJIR3535 has been demonstrated in vitro with a netB-null mutant. This study has investigated the effect of plasmid transfer on disease pathogenesis, with two genetically distinct transconjugants constructed under in vitro conditions, within the intestinal tract of chickens. This study also demonstrates that plasmid transfer can occur naturally in the host gut environment without the need for antibiotic selective pressure to be applied. The demonstration of plasmid transfer within the chicken host may have implications for the progression and pathogenesis of C. perfringens-mediated disease. Such horizontal gene transfer events are likely to be common in the clostridia and may be a key factor in strain evolution, both within animals and in the wider environment.IMPORTANCEClostridium perfringens is a major gastrointestinal pathogen of poultry. C. perfringens strains that express the NetB pore-forming toxin, which is encoded on a conjugative plasmid, cause necrotic enteritis. This study demonstrated that the conjugative transfer of the netB-containing plasmid to two different nonpathogenic strains converted them into disease-causing strains with disease-causing capability similar to that of the donor strain. Plasmid transfer of netB and antibiotic resistance was also demonstrated to occur within the gastrointestinal tract of chickens, with approximately 14% of the isolates recovered comprising three distinct, in vivo-derived, transconjugant types. The demonstration of in vivo plasmid transfer indicates the potential importance of strain plasticity and the contribution of plasmids to strain virulence.

Dataset Information

Pulmonary Clostridium perfringens: Seeding Beyond the Gastrointestinal Tract.

Publications

Pulmonary <i>Clostridium perfringens:</i> Seeding Beyond the Gastrointestinal Tract.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets