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
Case Reports
. 2017:2017:4076159.
doi: 10.1155/2017/4076159. Epub 2017 Nov 15.

Q Fever Presented as a Large Retroperitoneal Pseudotumoral Mass

Behdokht Nowroozizadeh  1 , Negar Haghighi Mehmandari  1 , Nicolas Gallegos  1 , Mari Perez-Rosendahl  2 , Di Lu  1
Affiliations
Case Reports

Q Fever Presented as a Large Retroperitoneal Pseudotumoral Mass

Behdokht Nowroozizadeh et al. Case Rep Pathol. 2017.

Abstract

Background: Q fever is an infection caused by Coxiella burnetii, an intracellular organism. Acute infection is most often a benign and asymptomatic process; however, some individuals may go on to develop subacute and persistent localized symptomatic Q fever. As such, the clinical and histopathologic findings of Q fever are widely variable and may be missed if clinical suspicion is not high.

Case presentation: Herein we report the first case of C. burnetii infection presenting as an isolated retroperitoneal mass. A 61-year-old male underwent axillary-bifemoral bypass surgery. His postoperative course was complicated by the discovery of a large retroperitoneal mass.

Conclusion: Clinical and histopathologic findings of Coxiella burnetii infection are variable and can be deceiving. These are often nonspecific, especially in its persistent localized infectious stages.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Abdominal CTA showing a lobulated low-density soft tissue mass within the retroperitoneum with involvement of the bilateral psoas muscles.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Fine needle aspiration revealed benign skeletal muscle, fibrous tissue, and few fragments of necrotic material.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Lee M., Jang J. J., Kim Y. S., et al. Clinicopathologic features of Q fever patients with acute hepatitis. The Korean Journal of Pathology. 2012;46(1):10–14. doi: 10.4132/KoreanJPathol.2012.46.1.10. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Parola P., et al. Diagnosis of Q Fever. Journal of Clinical Microbiology. 1998:1823–1834. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wegdam-Blans M. C. A., Vainas T., Van Sambeek M. R., et al. Vascular complications of Q-fever infections. European Journal of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery. 2011;42(3):384–392. doi: 10.1016/j.ejvs.2011.04.013. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Hatchette T. F., Marrie T. J. Atypical manifestations of chronic Q fever. Clinical Infectious Diseases. 2001;33(8):1347–1351. doi: 10.1086/323031. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Janigan D. T., Marrie T. J. An inflammatory pseudotumor of the lung in Q fever pneumonia. The New England Journal of Medicine. 1983;308(2):86–88. doi: 10.1056/NEJM198301133080207. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources