Real-Time PCR for Diagnosis of Oculoglandular Tularemia

Max Maurin,Isabelle Pelloux,Brieuc Gestin,Pascal Chavanet,Alexandra Mailles,Nathalie Roch,Bernard Castan,Christophe Chiquet

doi:10.3201/eid1601.090793

Abstract

Real-Time PCR for Diagnosis of Oculoglandular Tularemia

Highlights

Patient A, a 43-year-old woman, was referred in October 2006 to the infectious disease department of Auch Hospital (Auch, France)
The patient remembered being scratched on the left hand by her dog several weeks earlier; the scratch healed spontaneously. She had recently walked in a nearby forest that was endemic for tularemia
Three negative controls (DNA-free water) and 1 positive control (DNA extracted from the F. tularensis subsp. holarctica LVS strain) were used for each PCR

Summary

Introduction

Patient B, a 42-year-old woman, was referred in October 2008 to the infectious disease department of Dijon University Hospital (Dijon, France) for intermittent fever (38.5°C) and swollen left-sided pretragal and cervical lymph nodes, which had evolved for 3 weeks despite administration of amoxicillin, followed by pristinamycin and prednisone, and ciprofloxacin for 7 days. Diagnostic investigations (Table) conducted at Grenoble University Hospital included serologic tests Holarctica antigen), culture, and 2 real-time PCRs. These PCRs were specific for insertion sequence ISFtu2 or the Tul4 protein–encoding gene of Francisella sp.

Results

Conclusion