Ann Clin Microbiol.  2018 Sep;21(3):64-67. 10.5145/ACM.2018.21.3.64.

Nocardia abscessus Cutaneous Abscess: A Case Report and Review of the Literature

• Park HS
• Son BR
• Song MS
• Shin KS

• KMID: 2429657
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.5145/ACM.2018.21.3.64

Abstract

We describe a cutaneous abscess caused by Nocardia abscessus in a previously healthy woman. A 74-year-old woman presented with recurrent bullae on her left forearm that developed 1 week prior and was initially suspected to be a cutaneous infection with Mycobacteria or Tinea corporis. Histopathologically, the skin lesion formed an abscess. A smear revealed a few branched Gram-positive filamentous microorganisms that formed a creamy white colony on a blood agar plate after incubation for 3 days. The colony tested negative on acid-fast bacilli (AFB) staining, but was positive on modified AFB staining. The isolate was confirmed to be N. abscessus by 16S rRNA sequencing analysis. The isolate was susceptible to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, amikacin, cefotaxime and erythromycin but resistant to penicillin. The patient was treated with clarithromycin but subsequently lost to follow-up. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a human cutaneous infection with N. abscessus in Korea.

Keyword

Cutaneous abscess; Nocardia abscessus; 16S rRNA sequence

MeSH Terms

Abscess*
Agar
Aged
Amikacin
Cefotaxime
Clarithromycin
Erythromycin
Female
Forearm
Humans
Korea
Lost to Follow-Up
Nocardia*
Penicillins
Skin
Tinea
Trimethoprim, Sulfamethoxazole Drug Combination
Agar
Amikacin
Cefotaxime
Clarithromycin
Erythromycin
Penicillins
Trimethoprim, Sulfamethoxazole Drug Combination

Figure

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  Fig. 1. Phylogenetic tree of the current isolate (CBU 05/1969: 1,362 bp) and Nocardia species. The 16S rRNA gene sequences of Nocardia species available in GenBank were aligned using CLUSTAL V and the phylogenetic tree was generated by the neighbor-joining method. Bootstrap values (%) are shown near their corresponding branches; ‘0.1’ indicates 0.1 nucleotide substitutions per site.

Reference

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