Endocarditis due to listeria monocytogenes and human immunodeficiency virus infection

Prosthetic valve endocarditis due to Listeria monocytogenes

“…In addition, at least 11 patients (16.2%) were severely immunocompromized by solid organ transplantation, leukemia or lymphoma, corticosteroid therapy, haemodialysis or AIDS. 11,19,20,33,48,52,53,62 Seven patients had solid cancer and four of them had a colonic adenocarcinoma. 46,54,59 Although an association between listeriosis and gastrointestinal cancer has not been previously formulated, this possibility must be taken into account.…”

Human listeriosis in Britain, 1967–85, a summary of 722 cases: 2. Listeriosis in non-pregnant individuals, a changing pattern of infection and seasonal incidence

“…One case of listeriosis (meningoencephalitis) in this series occurred in a patient with AIDS. Other cases in AIDS patients have been reported [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36]. It has been estimated that in the USA, the risk of patients with AIDS acquiring listeriosis is several hundred times higher than in the general population [37].…”

A mycotic abdominal aortic aneurysm caused byListeria monocytogenesin a patient with HIV infection

“…In the reported cases some patients have recovered without recurrences during follow-up and on no subsequent prophylaxis; however, for most of the cases follow-up was incomplete (see online supplementary table S1). An uneventful recovery has also been reported in patients with HIV with focal listeria infection treated with long-term peroral trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole at follow-up after 1 year,37 endovascular repair of culture-negative aortic aneurysms treated with long-term antibiotic treatment41 and endocarditis treated with surgery, penicillin plus netimicin for 4 weeks seen at 2-year follow-up 36. Three patients with HIV infection with non-listerial infected abdominal aneurysms were continued for several weeks on antibiotic treatment, and did clinically well during follow-up 42…”

“…Mortality among patients with HIV infection with invasive listeriosis was between 29% and 35% 10 38. Listeriosis has been described as a late manifestation in advanced HIV infection,10 but has also occurred in a patient with HIV with a CD4 count within normal limits 9 36…”

“…This might be due to different immune defense mechanisms in HIV infection, for example, resident macrohages,3 4 T lymphocytes not expressing CD45 and elevated levels of tumour necrosis factor α 6. Reports on listeriosis in patients who are HIV positive have been presented as bacteraemia,6–18 and a number of focal infections (see online supplementary table S1) such as meningitis,6–11 19–31 cerebral abscess,10 32 33 rhomboencephalitis,34 pericarditis,35 endocarditis,7 36 pleural infection37 38 and liver abscess 38. Unlike listerial bacteraemia and meningitis in which use of immunosuppression and neoplastic diseases are predisposing factors, host factors seem to play an important role in infected vessels 39…”