Biomaterial Database

Fatal human monocytic ehrlichiosis: a case study. 2011

Joseph J Pavelites, and Joseph A Prahlow

Transitional Year Program, GME Office, Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center, Building 300, Hospital Road, Ft. Gordon, GA 30905, USA. joseph.pavelites@amedd.army.mil

Human ehrlichiosis is the term for a collection of tick-borne diseases caused primarily by obligate intracellular bacteria of the Ehrlichia species. Ehrlichiosis is characterized by a mild to severe illness, with approximately 3-5% of cases proving fatal despite receiving appropriate care. This report presents the case of a 60 year-old woman who was found collapsed and unresponsive in her home after an indeterminate time; possibly for up to 48 h. Despite rigorous resuscitative care and antibiotic treatment, the patient lapsed into multi-organ failure and died. Subsequent analysis by microscopic examination, PCR and immunohistochemistry revealed the patient died from an infection of Ehrlichia chaffeensis. Clinicians and pathologists must be aware of this emergent disease in order to make a timely and appropriate diagnosis. Discussion of the patient's clinical, laboratory and autopsy findings as well as treatment of Ehrlichia chaffeensis infections is presented.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D007150	Immunohistochemistry	Histochemical localization of immunoreactive substances using labeled antibodies as reagents.	Immunocytochemistry,Immunogold Techniques,Immunogold-Silver Techniques,Immunohistocytochemistry,Immunolabeling Techniques,Immunogold Technics,Immunogold-Silver Technics,Immunolabeling Technics,Immunogold Silver Technics,Immunogold Silver Techniques,Immunogold Technic,Immunogold Technique,Immunogold-Silver Technic,Immunogold-Silver Technique,Immunolabeling Technic,Immunolabeling Technique,Technic, Immunogold,Technic, Immunogold-Silver,Technic, Immunolabeling,Technics, Immunogold,Technics, Immunogold-Silver,Technics, Immunolabeling,Technique, Immunogold,Technique, Immunogold-Silver,Technique, Immunolabeling,Techniques, Immunogold,Techniques, Immunogold-Silver,Techniques, Immunolabeling
D007668	Kidney	Body organ that filters blood for the secretion of URINE and that regulates ion concentrations.	Kidneys
D008099	Liver	A large lobed glandular organ in the abdomen of vertebrates that is responsible for detoxification, metabolism, synthesis and storage of various substances.	Livers
D008875	Middle Aged	An adult aged 45 - 64 years.	Middle Age
D009102	Multiple Organ Failure	A progressive condition usually characterized by combined failure of several organs such as the lungs, liver, kidney, along with some clotting mechanisms, usually postinjury or postoperative.	MODS,Multiple Organ Dysfunction Syndrome,Organ Dysfunction Syndrome, Multiple,Organ Failure, Multiple,Failure, Multiple Organ,Multiple Organ Failures
D009206	Myocardium	The muscle tissue of the HEART. It is composed of striated, involuntary muscle cells (MYOCYTES, CARDIAC) connected to form the contractile pump to generate blood flow.	Muscle, Cardiac,Muscle, Heart,Cardiac Muscle,Myocardia,Cardiac Muscles,Heart Muscle,Heart Muscles,Muscles, Cardiac,Muscles, Heart
D005260	Female		Females
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000818	Animals	Unicellular or multicellular, heterotrophic organisms, that have sensation and the power of voluntary movement. Under the older five kingdom paradigm, Animalia was one of the kingdoms. Under the modern three domain model, Animalia represents one of the many groups in the domain EUKARYOTA.	Animal,Metazoa,Animalia
D016133	Polymerase Chain Reaction	In vitro method for producing large amounts of specific DNA or RNA fragments of defined length and sequence from small amounts of short oligonucleotide flanking sequences (primers). The essential steps include thermal denaturation of the double-stranded target molecules, annealing of the primers to their complementary sequences, and extension of the annealed primers by enzymatic synthesis with DNA polymerase. The reaction is efficient, specific, and extremely sensitive. Uses for the reaction include disease diagnosis, detection of difficult-to-isolate pathogens, mutation analysis, genetic testing, DNA sequencing, and analyzing evolutionary relationships.	Anchored PCR,Inverse PCR,Nested PCR,PCR,Anchored Polymerase Chain Reaction,Inverse Polymerase Chain Reaction,Nested Polymerase Chain Reaction,PCR, Anchored,PCR, Inverse,PCR, Nested,Polymerase Chain Reactions,Reaction, Polymerase Chain,Reactions, Polymerase Chain