Dear all:
Today at CPC, Arjan Gompol, an ID clinician, has had an excellent discussion and made the correct diagnosis with thoughtful explanation of the patient. His diagnosis is penicilliosis and probably a unique syndrome of acquired cell-mediated immunity (CMI) defect caused by autoantibody against interferon-gamma, a pivotal cytokine regulating CMI. Aj Wanla kindly further explained the uniqueness of this syndrome that all medical students and residents must recognize since it occurs in Asian nonHIV-infected patients both female and male who present with opportunistic infections caused by intracellular organisms including nontuberculous mycobacteria (including rapidly growing mycobacteria), M. tuberculosis (less often), Cryptococcus, Histoplasma, Penicillium, and Salmonella. In addition, most patients also have associated reactive skin lesions including Sweet syndrome, pustular psoriasis, acute generalized exanthematous pustulosis (AGEP) etc. Unfortunately, in Thailand right now we don't have the confirmatory tests. Infectious Diseases Association of Thailand in collaboration with the US NIH is gonna set up the screening and confirmatory tests soon.
Chusana