[Perioperative management for cardiovascular operations in two patients with cold agglutinin disease].

Cold agglutinin (CA) reacts reversibly with red blood cells at a low temperature and may cause thromboembolism of various organs. Therefore, special consideration is required in patients with cold agglutinin disease (CAD) undergoing cardiovascular surgery requiring hypothermia. Case 1: A 71-year-old man with elevated CA was scheduled to undergo total aortic arch replacement. Preoperatively, the patient received double filtration plasmapheresis to reduce CAs. The operation was performed at a higher temperature than the patient's thermal amplitude (TA) of 30 degrees C. Case 2: A 72-year-old man with CAD underwent a coronary artery bypass grafting. The patient's TA was 32 degrees C. The operation was performed on the beating heart with normothermic cardiopulmonary bypass. We performed an agglutination test at the temperature of 24 degrees C using the blood sample from the cardiopulmonary bypass circuit and no signs of agglutination were found. In both cases, no symptom of microembolism due to cold agglutination was recognized. This may indicate the possibility that the clinical risk is smaller than the risk recognized in vitro analysis. However, no safety standards for perioperative management of patients with CA are clearly established. Generally, it is more important to figure out the TA and to prevent the low-temperature exposure below the TA. In cases of normothermic procedures, further consideration for cerebral and myocardial protection is important.

[Evaluation of isolation media for the detection of Bartonella henselae--isolation of Bartonella henselae from domestic cats].

Bartonella henselae is a causative agent of cat scratch disease. We preliminarily tested four media for the bacterial growth, including agar plates with sheep, horse or rabbit blood, and chocolate agar. Of these media, rabbit blood and chocolate agar plate were found to be more excellent for the growth than the medium with sheep or horse blood. Blood samples from 60 domestic cats in Yamaguchi Prefecture were then cultured using 7% rabbit blood agar plates and BACTEC9050 (BD), automated blood culture microbial detection system. B. henselae was isolated from six of the 60 (10%) blood samples. Tiny colonies of B. henselae were visible on the agar medium after one week of culture at 35 degrees C in the 5% CO2 atmosphere. BACTEC 9050 detected B. henselae in one of the 10 blood samples and it took two weeks to detect the bacteria automatically, though gram stain failed to show organisms in the blood culture bottle. In conclusion, rabbit blood or chocolate agar and incubation of agar media more than one week and of BACTEC more than two weeks are recommended for the detection of B. henselae.

Cat scratch disease: analysis of 130 seropositive cases.

To clarify the clinical manifestations of cat scratch disease (CSD), we evaluated a total of 130 seropositive patients with CSD. The patients' ages ranged from 1 to 68 years; 103 (79.2%) were under 18 years of age. CSD occurred predominantly in the fall and winter months. Regional lymphadenopathy was noted in 110 (84.6%) of the cases, and the most common sites were the neck (33%), axillary (27%), and inguinal (18%) regions. One hundred of the patients (77%) had general symptoms, such as fever, headache, and malaise. The clinical manifestations of CSD showed a wide spectrum from typical or classical CSD, with regional lymphadenopathy, to atypical or systemic CSD. Of the 130 cases, 103 (79.2%) were typical CSD and 27 (20.8%) were atypical CSD. Atypical cases of CSD were commonly reported as fever of unknown origin (37.0%), neuroretinitis (22.2%), encephalopathy (14.8%), hepatosplenic granuloma (11.1%), and Parinaud's oculoglandular syndrome (7.4%). Fever of unknown origin or prolonged fever lasting more than 14 days was evident in 27 (20.8%) of the 130 cases in this study. Eleven of the 27 cases lacked lymphadenopathy. Our findings suggest that CSD is not a rare disease in Japan. The indirect fluorescent antibody (IFA) test to detect Bartonella species may provide a prompt diagnosis of CSD and facilitate appropriate therapy.