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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, December 2001, p. 4568-4570, Vol. 39, No. 12
0095-1137/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/JCM.39.12.4568-4570.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Recurrent Soft Tissue Abscesses Caused by Legionella cincinnatiensis

Jacques G. H. Gubler,1,* Mirjam Schorr,1 V. Gaia,2 R. Zbinden,3 and M. Altwegg3

Department of Medicine, Stadtspital Triemli, CH-8063 Zürich,1 Swiss National Center for Legionella, Istituto Cantonale Batteriosierologico, CH-6904 Lugano,2 and Institute for Medical Microbiology, University of Zürich, CH-8028 Zürich,3 Switzerland

Received 13 June 2001/Returned for modification 18 July 2001/Accepted 5 September 2001

Recurrent soft tissue abscesses of the jaw, wrist, and arm developed in a 73-year-old housewife with nephrotic syndrome and immunoglobulin A(kappa ) gammopathy of unknown etiology. Conventional cultures remained negative, despite visible gram-negative rods on microscopy. Broad-spectrum PCR revealed Legionella cincinnatiensis, which was confirmed by isolation of the organism on special Legionella medium. Infections due to Legionella species outside the lungs are rare. L. cincinnatiensis has been implicated in only four cases of clinical infection; these involved the lungs in three patients and the central nervous system in one patient. We conclude that broad-spectrum PCR can be a valuable tool for the evaluation of culture-negative infections with a high probability of bacterial origin and that Legionella might be an underdiagnosed cause of pyogenic soft tissue infection.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Medicine, Stadtspital Triemli, CH-8063 Zürich, Switzerland. Phone: 41-1-466 11 11. Fax: 41-1-466 26 02. E-mail: jacques.gubler{at}triemli.stzh.ch.

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, December 2001, p. 4568-4570, Vol. 39, No. 12
0095-1137/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/JCM.39.12.4568-4570.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Linscott, A. J., Poulter, M. D., Ward, K., Bruckner, D. A. (2004). Legionella pneumophila Serogroup 4 Isolated from Joint Tissue. J. Clin. Microbiol. 42: 1365-1366 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Cordevant, C., Tang, J. S., Cleland, D., Lange, M. (2003). Characterization of Members of the Legionellaceae Family by Automated Ribotyping. J. Clin. Microbiol. 41: 34-43 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


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