A Report of Cat Scratch Disease in Korea Confirmed by PCR Amplification of the 16S-23S rRNA Intergenic Region ofBartonella henselae

Abstract

Cat scratch disease (CSD) is a benign disease characterized by fever, self-limited regional lymphadenitis, and skin lesions due to cat scratch or bite. CSD shows a worldwide distribution and has been mostly reported in children aged less than 18 yr of age. The etiologic agent of CSD is Bartonella henselae, a gram-negative rod [1]. Little is known about the epidemiology of CSD in Korea. Since B.henselae is fastidious and cannot be grown in cultures, only 2 CSD cases have been reported using molecular genetic methods in Korea [2,3]. Here, we present the third case of CSD in a Korean pediatric patient; the disease was confirmed using PCR and DNA sequencing with pri- 34We report a case of cat scratch disease in an 8-yr-old girl who presented with fever and enlargement of both axillary lymph nodes. Both aerobic and anaerobic cultures of the lymph node aspirate were negative for microbial growth. Gram staining and Warthin-Starry silver staining did not reveal any organism. Purified DNA from the PCR-amplicon of the 16S-23S rRNA intergenic region was sequenced and showed 99.7% identity with the corresponding sequence of Bartonella henselae strain Houston-1. Our findings suggest that the internal transcribed spacer is a reliable region for PCR identification of Bartonella species. In patients with lymphadenitis, a history of contact with cats or dogs necessitates the use of diagnostic approaches that employ not only the conventional staining and culture but also molecular methods to detect B. henselae. (Korean J Lab Med 2010;30:34-7)

A Rare Case of Cat-Scratch Disease Presenting as Axillary Lymphadenopathy with Non Tuberculous Mycobacterial Infection

“…To the best of our knowledge, in Korea, not many cases of axillary lymphadenopathy of CSD have been reported [15]. In our case, an immunocompetent patient presented with axillary LAP and was confirmed to have CSD through a lymph node biopsy despite the patient having no direct contact with cats.…”

Prevalence, Isolation and Molecular Characterization ofBartonellaSpecies in Republic of Korea

“…by general biochemical tests, molecular methods using nPCR techniques followed by sequencing and analysis of several housekeeping genes [ glt A, rpo B, fts Z, gro EL, riboflavin synthase alpha chain ( rib C), 16S‐23S ITS region and 16S rRNA genes] as targets were used for specific identification of Bartonella spp. (Ying et al., ; La Scola et al., ; Inoue et al., ; Gil et al., ; Suh et al., ; Kabeya et al., ). G lt A and rpo B have been used for classifying Bartonella spp.…”

“…have been detected in wild rodents, Korean water deer, ticks and domestic animals (Kim et al., , ; Chae et al., ; Ko et al., ), including B. elizabethae detected in wild rodents (Kim et al., ). Moreover, several human cases of Bartonella infections have been recently reported in the ROK (Suh et al., ; Yoon et al., ). These findings suggest that continuous surveillance, including bacterial isolation, is required for the detection and appropriate treatment for human Bartonella infections in the ROK.…”

First Case ofBartonella quintanaEndocarditis in Korea

“…were detected from the ticks and wild rodents in Korea (8), and B. henselae and Bartonella clarridgeieae were highly prevalent in Korean cats and dogs (9). In addition, there has been a paper reporting possible cases of cat scratch disease based on the seropositivity against B. henselae or B. quintana (10) and a report of cat scratch disease confirmed by molecular methods in Korea (11). These suggest that there is a possibility that cases of endocarditis by Bartonella spp.…”