Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015:2015:291838.
doi: 10.1155/2015/291838. Epub 2015 Jun 1.

Actinomyces meyeri Empyema: A Case Report and Review of the Literature

Hae Won Jung  1 , Chong Rae Cho  2 , Ji Yoon Ryoo  3 , Hyun Kyo Lee  1 , So Young Ha  1 , Ji Hoon Choi  1 , Yee Gyung Kwak  1
Affiliations

Actinomyces meyeri Empyema: A Case Report and Review of the Literature

Hae Won Jung et al. Case Rep Infect Dis. 2015.

Abstract

Actinomyces meyeri is an uncommon cause of human actinomycosis. Here, we report a rare case of empyema caused by A. meyeri. A 49-year-old male presented with a history of 10 days of dyspnea and chest pain. A large amount of loculated pleural effusion was present on the right side and multiple lung nodules were documented on radiological studies. A chest tube was inserted and purulent pleural fluid was drained. A. meyeri was isolated in anaerobic cultures of the pleural fluid. The infection was alleviated in response to treatment with intravenous penicillin G (20 million IU daily) and oral amoxicillin (500 mg every 8 hours) for 4 months, demonstrating that short-term antibiotic treatment was effective.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Large fissural loculated effusion in the right hemithorax.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Multiple lung nodules and a large amount of multiloculated pleural effusion in the right hemithorax.
Figure 3
Figure 3
A chest radiograph showed the complete resolution of empyema without pleural sequelae 12 months after discontinuing treatment.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Mabeza G. F., Macfarlane J. Pulmonary actinomycosis. European Respiratory Journal. 2003;21(3):545–551. doi: 10.1183/09031936.03.00089103. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kim S. R., Jung L. Y., Oh I.-J., et al. Pulmonary actinomycosis during the first decade of 21st century: cases of 94 patients. BMC Infectious Diseases. 2013;13(1, article 216) doi: 10.1186/1471-2334-13-216. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wong V. K., Turmezei T. D., Weston V. C. Actinomycosis. The British Medical Journal. 2011;343(7827) doi: 10.1136/bmj.d6099.d6099 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Jung H. Y., Kim H. Y., Kim Y. K., et al. A rare case of pericardial actinomycosis. Infection and Chemotherapy. 2012;44(1):31–34. doi: 10.3947/ic.2012.44.1.31. - DOI
    1. Kakuta R., Hidaka H., Yano H., et al. Identification of Actinomyces meyeri actinomycosis in middle ear and mastoid by 16S rRNA analysis. Journal of Medical Microbiology. 2013;62(8):1245–1248. doi: 10.1099/jmm.0.051698-0. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources