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Published in Lourdes R. Laraya-Cuasay, Walter T. Hughes, Interstitial Lung Diseases in Children, 2019
The Nocardiaceae family includes aerobic actinomycetes which are bacteria-like organisms with a propensity for filamentous growth and true branching similar to fungi. Nocardia asteroides is the species most frequently implicated in human nocardiosis. Less frequently encountered species are N. brasiliensis, N. caviae, and N. farcinica.
Unexplained Fever in Infectious Diseases Section 1: Viruses, Chlamydia, Mycoplasma, Rickettsiae, Higher Bacteria, Cell-Wall Deficient Bacteria, And Fungi
Published in Benedict Isaac, Serge Kernbaum, Michael Burke, Unexplained Fever, 2019
Nocardia asteroides is an aerobic Gram-positive filamentous bacteria widely distributed as a soil and vegetation saprophyte which can be inhalated and, mainly in immunodeficient patients, can create a primary necrotizing pneumonia, with a possible hematogenous spread to viscera, mainly to central nervous system.
Clinicopathological, Microbiological and Polymerase Chain Reaction Study in a Case of Nocardia Scleritis
Published in Ocular Immunology and Inflammation, 2021
Mamta Agarwal, Gazal Patnaik, Kaushal Sanghvi, A. R. Anand, M. K. Janani, Jyotirmay Biswas
Nocardia constitutes a group of Gram-positive, weakly acid-fast, filamentous and aerobic bacilli, which belong to the actinomycetes group of bacteria. They are ubiquitous organisms found in soil, water, dust and organic matter. Among more than 85 identified species of Nocardia, nearly 25 species have been associated with human infections, with the most common being Nocardia asteroides, N. brasiliensis, N. abscessus, N.farcinica and N. veteran.1 It usually causes pulmonary infection in immunocompromised patients with predisposing conditions such as HIV/AIDS, post-organ transplant, chronic immunosuppressive therapy, diabetes, malignancies and chronic alcoholism. However, ocular infections including conjunctivitis, scleritis, keratitis, choroiditis, endophthalmitis, canaliculitis, orbital cellulitis have also been reported.2 Nocardia scleritis is a chronic insidious infection, which may occur either in isolation or along with keratitis involving the limbus. It is either exogenous post-trauma or endogenous caused by hematogenous spread. The diagnosis is normally a challenge as the clinical signs are nonspecific and may mimic either immune-mediated scleritis seen in systemic autoimmune diseases or other infections caused by fungi, atypical mycobacteria and low virulent bacteria.3 Here we report the case of a patient with scleritis caused by Nocardia cyriacigeorgica, who was earlier treated as tubercular scleritis on the basis of positive PCR for Mycobacterium tuberculosis. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported case of Nocardia cyriacigeorgica scleritis.