Prevalence of vascular thrombosis in patients with liver abscess.

Thrombotic complications in liver abscess are less commonly identified in the literature. In this prospective observational study, vascular thrombosis was detected in 21.9% cases. However, there was no significant difference in outcome with or without vascular thrombosis, properly treated.

Concomitant disseminated tuberculosis and lepromatous leprosy in a previously healthy male.

Tuberculosis (TB) and leprosy are two chronic mycobacterial infections caused by intracellular Gram-positive aerobic acid-fast bacilli. Both have highly variable presentations depending on immunological milieu of the host and account for significant disease morbidity. The burden of these age-old infections of humanity still remains high in India. Regardless of the same geographical endemicity of the two, coinfections are sparsely reported. Indeed, studies have revealed an antagonism between them. Of the few coinfections reported in the past, majority were diagnosed over a temporal sequence, with one occurring after the other, and most of these were localized forms of TB associated with leprosy. Only a single case of disseminated TB and lepromatous leprosy has been reported in the medical literature till date. Here, we report another rare case of disseminated TB and lepromatous leprosy that ultimately proved fatal for the patient. The diagnosis of the two diseases was made simultaneously which is again infrequent in the reported literature.

Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome in scrub typhus fever.

The clinical course of a 40-year-old female patient, who presented with acute febrile illness due to scrub typhus fever became complicated by seizures and posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES), leading to a fatal outcome. She had normal blood pressure at admission; however, she later developed hypotension and shock. PRES is a syndrome of vasogenic cerebral oedema and accompanying neurological deficits resulting from the breakdown of blood-brain barrier due to high blood pressure or radical blood pressure changes. PRES is a clinico-radiographic diagnosis of heterogeneous aetiologies and is rare in the context of infections. Although there are many neurological manifestations in scrub typhus, to the best of our knowledge, PRES has never been reported.

Disseminated histoplasmosis and tuberculosis: dual infection in a non-endemic region.

Histoplasmosis is a systemic fungal infection caused by Histoplasma capsulatum, a dimorphic fungus that spreads commonly by contamination of soil with bird and bat droppings. The infection remains latent in most patients until manifested by reduced immune status, for example, HIV/AIDS, corticosteroid/immunosuppressive therapy or in solid organ transplant recipients. Tuberculosis and histoplasmosis may cooccur rarely in HIV and the clinical resemblance of both diseases may hinder identification of patients' harbouring dual infection, especially in regions non-endemic for histoplasmosis. We report a case of disseminated histoplasmosis with disseminated tuberculosis in an incidentally detected patient with HIV-positive who presented with reports of fever and skin rash for 10 days. The Mantoux positivity and CT of chest and abdomen revealing multiple necrotic lymph nodes coupled with bone marrow and skin biopsy divulging histoplasmosis and tuberculosis helped us clinch the concurrent infection.

Cerebellitis as a rare manifestation of scrub typhus fever.

Scrub typhus is a mite-borne rickettsial disease caused by Orientia tsutsugamushi, a gram-negative coccobacilli transmitted through the bite of chigger mite. Scrub typhus has diverse clinical manifestations, often presenting either as a simple febrile illness or as a complicated multi-organ dysfunction. Neurological complications in scrub typhus are diverse but their exact incidence is unknown. Cerebellitis is another rare neurological manifestation associated with scrub typhus. Here, we report the case of a 26-year-old woman with serologically confirmed scrub typhus presenting with fever and gross cerebellar dysfunction. MRI was normal. She was managed with antimicrobials and made an uneventful recovery.

Concurrent Guillain-Barré syndrome and myositis complicating dengue fever.

Dengue is an arboviral infection that classically presents with fever, headache, joint pain, skin flush and morbilliform rashes. Neurological manifestations are well recognised but their exact incidence is unknown. Though myalgias are common in dengue virus infection, myositis and/or elevated serum creatine kinase is an uncommon complication. Guillain-Barré syndrome is another rare neurological manifestation associated with dengue fever. Here, we report the case of a 21-year-old man with serologically confirmed dengue fever presenting with severe myalgia, bilateral lower and upper limb weakness with raised creatine kinase, MRI suggestive of myositis and myonecrosis and nerve conduction velocity showing bilateral lower limb and axillary sensory motor neuropathy. He was managed conservatively and made an uneventful recovery.