Alvano Trespalacios Sierra, Bárbara Arroyo-Salgado, Jesús Rodriguez-Blanco, Ingrid Tibocha Gordon, María Cristina Martínez-Ávila
{"title":"Systemic protothecosis in an immunocompetent patient.","authors":"Alvano Trespalacios Sierra, Bárbara Arroyo-Salgado, Jesús Rodriguez-Blanco, Ingrid Tibocha Gordon, María Cristina Martínez-Ávila","doi":"10.1186/s40794-022-00180-8","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Although uncommon, there is increasing interest and public health concerns of the pathogen Prototheca spp, a ubiquitous achlorophilic microalgae that can affect both humans and animals. High mortality rates have been reported in immunocompromised patients with disseminated infection, but no data is available in the immunocompetent population.</p><p><strong>Case presentation: </strong>We present the case of a 59-year-old man from rural area of Colombia who was admitted to the intensive care unit due to decompensated heart failure that was difficult to medically manage, with development of septic shock and isolation of Prototheca wickerhamii from blood culture. Fluconazole and Amphotericin B were given with successful outcome.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>To date, protothecosis and its virulence factors and pathogenesis remain to be fully understood, in our case the isolation of this microalga and its implication of exacerbating chronic conditions such as heart failure is unclear. The medical-scientific community is invited to study this microorganism to determine effective management strategies, as well as its timely identification, treatment, and control, to avoid fatal outcomes.</p>","PeriodicalId":23303,"journal":{"name":"Tropical Diseases, Travel Medicine and Vaccines","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.4000,"publicationDate":"2022-10-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9569104/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Tropical Diseases, Travel Medicine and Vaccines","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40794-022-00180-8","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"INFECTIOUS DISEASES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Although uncommon, there is increasing interest and public health concerns of the pathogen Prototheca spp, a ubiquitous achlorophilic microalgae that can affect both humans and animals. High mortality rates have been reported in immunocompromised patients with disseminated infection, but no data is available in the immunocompetent population.
Case presentation: We present the case of a 59-year-old man from rural area of Colombia who was admitted to the intensive care unit due to decompensated heart failure that was difficult to medically manage, with development of septic shock and isolation of Prototheca wickerhamii from blood culture. Fluconazole and Amphotericin B were given with successful outcome.
Conclusions: To date, protothecosis and its virulence factors and pathogenesis remain to be fully understood, in our case the isolation of this microalga and its implication of exacerbating chronic conditions such as heart failure is unclear. The medical-scientific community is invited to study this microorganism to determine effective management strategies, as well as its timely identification, treatment, and control, to avoid fatal outcomes.
期刊介绍:
Tropical Diseases, Travel Medicine and Vaccines is an open access journal that considers basic, translational and applied research, as well as reviews and commentary, related to the prevention and management of healthcare and diseases in international travelers. Given the changes in demographic trends of travelers globally, as well as the epidemiological transitions which many countries are experiencing, the journal considers non-infectious problems including chronic disease among target populations of interest as well as infectious diseases.