Clinical characteristics and prognosis of 44 patients with Nocardia infection / 中华传染病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the clinical characteristics and prognosis of the patients with nocardiosis.Methods:From January 2013 to July 2019, 44 patients with nocardiosis in Department of Infectious Diseases, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University in Shanghai were enrolled, and their clinical data were retrospectively analyzed, including baseline characteristics, clinical manifestations, underlying diseases history of glucocorticoid therapy, laboratory data (blood routine examination, procalcitonin, C-reactive protein, lymphocytes subsets, etc.), imaging changes, bacterial strain identification, treatment regimens and outcomes. According to the locations of infection, patients were divided into pulmonary nocardiosis, extrapulmonary single-organ nocardiosis and disseminated nocardiosis. The Mann-Whitney U test was used for comparison between two groups, and the Kruskal-Wallis H test was used for comparison among multiple groups. Results:Among the 44 cases of nocardiosis, 14 cases were pulmonary nocardiosis, 17 cases were extrapulmonary single-organ nocardiosis (including nine cases with central nervous system infection, six cases with skin and soft tissue infection, one case with abdominal abscess and one case with urinary tract infection) and 13 cases were disseminated nocardiosis (including four cases with bloodstream infection, six cases with central nervous system and lung or skin and soft tissue infection, three cases of lung and skin and soft tissue infection). Thirty-four cases had underlying diseases, and 27 cases received glucocorticoid or immunosuppressant treatment. The main symptom of 11 patients in pulmonary nocardiosis group was productive cough, while that of the patients in other two groups was fever. Nocardia species were mainly Nocardia brasiliensis, Nocardia nova and Nocardia farcinicaia. The white blood cell counts and neutrophils proportion were normal or slightly increased in 42 cases, and the platelets were normal or slightly decreased in 41 cases. Erythrocyte sedimentation rate increased in 19 cases, procalcitonin increased in 21 cases, C-reactive protein increased in 34 cases, and ferritin increased in 18 cases. A total of 34 patients were tested for lymphocyte subsets, of which 15 had CD4 + T lymphocytes decreased, 14 had CD8 + T lymphocytes increased, seven had B lymphocytes increased, seven had B lymphocytes decreased, and eight had natural killer cells decreased. The hemoglobin of patients with pulmonary nocardiosis was higher than that of patients with extrapulmonary infection, and the difference was statistically significant ( U=0.095, P=0.025). The imaging manifestations were mainly abscess and inflammatory exudation. Forty cases were cured or improved, one case was still on treatment, and three cases died. Conclusions:The clinical manifestations of nocardiosis involving various organs are non-specific. Standardized treatment could reduce the mortality of nocardiosis.