Diagnosing Balamuthia mandrillaris encephalitis via next-generation sequencing in a 13-year-old girl

ABSTRACTBalamuthia amoebic encephalitis has a subacute-to-chronic course and is almost invariably fatal owing to delayed diagnosis and a lack of effective therapy. Here, we report a 13-year-old girl with cutaneous lesions and multifocal granulomatous encephalitis. The patient underwent a series of t...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Xia Wu, Gangfeng Yan, Shuzhen Han, Yingzi Ye, Xunjia Cheng, Hairong Gong, Hui Yu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2020-01-01
Series:Emerging Microbes and Infections
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/22221751.2020.1775130
Description
Summary:ABSTRACTBalamuthia amoebic encephalitis has a subacute-to-chronic course and is almost invariably fatal owing to delayed diagnosis and a lack of effective therapy. Here, we report a 13-year-old girl with cutaneous lesions and multifocal granulomatous encephalitis. The patient underwent a series of tests and was suspected as having tuberculosis. She was treated with various empiric therapies without improvement. She was finally correctly diagnosed via next-generation sequencing of the cerebrospinal fluid. The patient deteriorated rapidly and died 2 months after being diagnosed with Balamuthia mandrillaris encephalitis. This study highlights the important clinical significance of next-generation sequencing, which provides better diagnostic testing for unexplained paediatric encephalitis, especially that caused by rare or emerging pathogens.
ISSN:2222-1751