AGUERO-ROSENFELD ME, HOROWITZ HW, KALANTARPOUR F, CHOWDHURY I, SCHWARTZ I, LIVERIS D, RAFFALLI JT, WORMSER GP; Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

Abstr Intersci Conf Antimicrob Agents Chemother Intersci Conf Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 1999 Sep 26-29; 39: 717 (abstract no. 1078).

NY Med. Coll., Westchester Med. Ctr., Valhalla, NY

BACKGROUND: HGE is a tick-borne infectious disease caused by obligate intracellular bacteria that infect granulocytic leukocytes. Evidence of blood stream infection is common based on visualization of intraleukocytic inclusions, positive PCR on blood and recovery of the agent by culture of blood in a promyelocytic cell line. Treatment with doxycycline promptly improves the clinical symptoms followed by normalization of routine laboratory parameters. There is currently no information regarding the clearance of the HGE agent in blood after antimicrobial treatment, which may be an important consideration on whether these patients should be deferred as blood donors.METHODS: In an ongoing study 9 culture-confirmed HGE patients were tested at different time intervals during and post doxycycline treatment. Eight of these patients were also initially PCR and smear positive. Blood specimens collected at different time intervals were tested by PCR and culture. Cultures were performed by inoculating 0.2 mL of EDTA blood into an HL-60 cell line and incubating for up to 14 days. For PCR, 0.1 mL of EDTA blood was used to amplify a 480-bp portion of the GroESL operon.RESULTS: Sixteen blood specimens obtained from 9 patients were included in this study. Three patients had 1 specimen, 1 patient had 3 specimens and 5 patients had 2 specimens tested. Four specimens were collected between 6 and 11 days into treatment, 6 between 2 and 6 months and 6 between 12 and 21 months post treatment. All specimens tested negative by PCR and culture.CONCLUSION: These preliminary data suggest that doxycycline treatment eradicates the agent of HGE from blood of infected individuals. This finding may have important implications for potential use of these individuals as blood donors.

Publication Types:

• Meeting Abstracts

Keywords:

• Anaplasma phagocytophilum
• Ehrlichiosis
• HL-60 Cells
• Humans
• Polymerase Chain Reaction
• Tick-Borne Diseases
• microbiology
• therapy

Other ID:

• GWAIDS0008986

UI: 102246483

From Meeting Abstracts