Nocardiosis in Srinagarind Hospital, Thailand: review of 70 cases from 1996–2001

Abstract

Nocardiosis is a common opportunistic infection in many immunocompromised conditions. It can present with various clinical syndromes, especially pleuropulmonary infection. Culture may not yield the organism but modified acid-fast staining is very helpful in diagnosis. Drug susceptibility testing should be performed due to increasing resistance to TMP-SMX.

Isolation frequency and susceptibility patterns of Nocardia species at a tertiary hospital laboratory in Karachi, Pakistan

“…These findings are similar to most of the published literature [6,10,16,17]. No definitive explanation for this predominance in the male sex has yet been described but researchers believe that this could be due to hormonal effects on the virulence of organisms [1].…”

“…This isolation frequency is comparable to that of European countries [10,16,17], but it is quite low when compared to countries sharing similar climatic conditions as ours, such as Japan and parts of the United States [1,18]. One of the reasons for lower isolation rates in our study might be that clinical diagnosis of nocardiosis is often difficult and a strong degree of suspicion is required for proper diagnosis [8].…”

“…While many studies have been conducted worldwide to investigate the prevalence of nocardiosis in different regions [4,5,10], none have been performed in Pakistan; only limited individual case reports have been described from our country [11,12,13]. Our study was conducted to assess the frequency of infection by and sensitivity patterns of different Nocardia species isolated over a 15-year period at the Microbiology Laboratory of Aga Khan University Hospital, which is one of the leading tertiary care hospitals in Karachi.…”

Primary Brain Abscess Caused by <i>Nocardia otitidiscaviarum</i>

“…The combination of sulfamethoxazole with trimethoprim is used to treat all forms of Nocardia (1, 4, 23, 24). However, ST-resistant strains of Nocardia, including N. otitidiscaviarum, have been reported in immunocompromised patients (25,26). Table 2 shows the antibiotic susceptibility patterns of N. otitidiscaviarum (IFM11321) (27).…”

Pulmonary Nocardiosis: An Unusual Cause of Pulmonary Cavitations

“…Tanı konulduktan sonra tedavi ilacının seçimi için hastalı-ğın ciddiyeti, ilaç toksisitesi ve hastanın durumuna göre karar verilmelidir. Günümüzde nokardiyozun standart tedavisinde rezistan olgular bildirilse de yüksek duyarlılık nedeniyle sülfonamidler ilk tercih antibiyotik olarak kabul edilmektedir (5,16). Trimetoprim/Sülfametoksazol için önerilen doz 5-10 mg/kg (trimetoprim) and 25-50 mg/kg (sülfametoksazol)'dir (17).…”