A Case of Meningococcal Sepsis and Meningitis with Complement 7 Deficiency in a Military Trainee / 감염과화학요법

Complement component 7 (C7) deficiency leads to the loss of complement lytic function, and affected patients show increased susceptibility to encapsulated organisms infection, especially Neisseria meningitidis. Recently, we have experienced a 20-year-old military trainee with meningococcal sepsis and meningitis who was diagnosed as having C7 deficiency based upon the undetectable serum C7 protein on radioimmunoassay. This case emphasizes that although C7 deficiency is rare immune disorder, it is important to be aware of possibility about late complement deficiency among patients who present with meningococcal disease.

A Korean familial case of hereditary complement 7 deficiency / 소아과

Meningococcal infections can be associated with abnormalities of the complement system, which contains 5 terminal complement proteins. Furthermore, deficiencies in 1 of these 5, complement component 7 (C7), leads to the loss of complement lytic function, and affected patients show increased susceptibility to recurrent meningococcal meningitis and systemic Neisseria gonorrhoeae infection. In September 2003, an 11-year-old female patient presented at our outpatient department with high fever, lower leg pain, headache, and petechiaes. She rapidly progressed to coma but later achieved full recovery due to prompt treatment. Her final diagnosis was meningococcal sepsis and arthritis. Her elder brother also had a similar bacterial meningoencephalitis history, which encouraged us to perform analyses for complement component and gene mutations. Resultantly, both the brother and sister were found to have the same mutation in the C7 gene. Subsequently, vaccinations of the meningococcal vaccine meningococcal vaccine (Menomune(R)) were administered. However, in September 2006, the brother expired due to acute micrococcus meningoencephalitis. At present, the 16-year-old female patient is healthy. Here, we report a Korean family with a hereditary C7 deficiency with susceptibility to meningococcal infections due to C7 gene mutation.