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Case Reports
. 2004 Oct;10(10):1835-7.
doi: 10.3201/eid1010.040273.

Fatal Naegleria fowleri meningoencephalitis, Italy

Paola E Cogo  1 , Massimo Scagli, Simonetta Gatti, Flavio Rossetti, Rita Alaggio, Anna Maria Laverda, Ling Zhou, Lihua Xiao, Govinda S Visvesvara
Affiliations
Case Reports

Fatal Naegleria fowleri meningoencephalitis, Italy

Paola E Cogo et al. Emerg Infect Dis. 2004 Oct.

Abstract

We report the first case of primary amebic meningoencephalitis in Italy, in a 9-year-old boy. Clinical course was fulminant, and diagnosis was made by identifying amebas in stained brain sections and by indirect immunofluorescence analysis. Naegleria fowleri was characterized as genotype I on the basis of polymerase chain reaction test results.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A) Computed tomographic scan: note the right fronto-basal collection (arrow) with a midline shift right to left. B) Brain histology: three large clusters of amebic vegetative forms are seen (H-E stain, x 250). Inset: Positive indirect immunofluorescent analysis on tissue section with anti– Naegleria fowleri serum.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Identification of Naegleria fowleri in the brain specimen from the Italian child by polymerase chain reaction analysis of the internal transcribed spacer of the rRNA gene. Lane 1: DNA from infected brain of the patient; lane 2: DNA from CDC:V236 culture, a positive control for N. fowleri.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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