Abstract
Legionella pneumonia is mainly caused by the inhalation of Legionella contaminated aerosol, aspiration or wound infection. Patients undergoing a severe immunosuppressive therapy such as organ transplant or cancer therapy are particularly at risk of infection.This study reported a case of Legionella pneumonia caused by Legionella pneumophila in a man with malignant melanoma. The method for diagnosing Legionella pneumonia by standard culture method was elaborate. A rapid diagnostic method derived from a two-step scheme assay with 99.42% accuracy for identification and differentiation of L. pneumophila and non- L. pneumophila in environmental Legionella isolates were also utilized in this study to evaluate whether this method was available for diagnosingLegionella infection. To confirm the diagnosis result of this rapid diagnostic method, sequencing of the bacteria in patient’s sputum partial gene was also carried out. The diagnosis result of this rapid diagnostic method was consistent with the culture method which indicated that it was effective in diagnosing L. pneumophila infection. Key words: Legionella pneumophila, malignant melanoma, pneumonia.
Highlights
Legionella pneumophila (L. pneumophila) is consistently reported among the most commonly identified pathogens in community-acquired and nosocomial pneumonias (Fields et al, 2002)
Legionella pneumonia is mainly caused by the inhalation of Legionella contaminated aerosol, aspiration or wound infection
This study reported a case of Legionella pneumonia caused by Legionella pneumophila in a man with malignant melanoma
Summary
Legionella pneumophila (L. pneumophila) is consistently reported among the most commonly identified pathogens in community-acquired and nosocomial pneumonias (Fields et al, 2002). 24 different pathogenic species have been reported, with L. pneumophila accounting for more than 80% of human infections (Newton et al, 2010). The most commonly isolated Legionella spp. are L. pneumophila (85%), Legionella longbeachae (3.2%), Legionella bozemanae (2.4%), Legionella micdadei, Legionella dumoffii and Legionella feeleii (2.2% combined). In addition to L. pneumophila, 20 Legionella species have been documented as human pathogens on the basis of their isolation from clinical material (Burke et al, 2009), but they occur at very low frequencies (Siegel et al, 2010). The clinical features of pneumonia caused by Legionella spp. are diverse. Elevation of creatine kinase and diarrhea have been reported as disease-specific symptoms for legionellosis in a comparative study (Sopena et al, 1998)
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