title: Rare zoonosis (hemotrophic mycoplasma infection) in a newly diagnosed systemic lupus erythematosus patient followed by a Nocardia asteroides pneumonia.
abstract: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is per se a disease characterized by suppressed immune response and thus susceptibility to various opportunistic infections. We describe the case of a 21-year old woman who developed a rare zoonosis - hemotrophic mycoplasma infection in the initial stage of SLE, complicated with Nocardia asteroides pneumonia afterwards. Nocardia infection coincided with initiation of glucocorticoids and cyclophosphamide therapy for SLE. After the treatment she recovered completely. To our knowledge the only case of human hemoplasmosis (then referred to as eperythrozoonosis) in medical literature was the one described by a group of Croatian authors 22 years ago. No cases of a hemotrophic mycoplasma infection in a SLE patient have been published up to now.
authors.affiliation: Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, University Hospital Centre Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia.
authors.forename: Dubravka
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bosnic
authors.forename: Marko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Baresic
authors.forename: Branimir
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Anic
authors.forename: Mirna
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sentic
authors.forename: Mislav
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cerovec
authors.forename: Miroslav
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mayer
authors.forename: Nada
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Cikes
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008180:Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D009174:Mycoplasma / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D009175:Mycoplasma Infections / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D009617:Nocardia Infections / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D009616:Nocardia asteroides / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D018410:Pneumonia, Bacterial / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D055815:Young Adult