Infected aortic aneurysm a life-threatening disease entity. Clostridium septicum is a very rare pathogen of infected aneurysms that carries a high mortality rate and demonstrates a strong association with an derlying colonic or hematologic neoplasm. Herein, we report a case of ruptured aortic aneurysm infected by C. septicum in a patient with colon cancer. This is the first reported case of infected aneurysm caused by C. septicum in Korea. Early diagnosis, appropriate antibiotic therapy, and prompt surgical interventions are required considering the rapid downhill progression of C. septicum-induced infected aneurysm.
Aneurysm, Infected ; Aortic Aneurysm ; Aortic Rupture ; Clostridium ; Clostridium septicum ; Colon ; Colonic Neoplasms ; Early Diagnosis ; Hematologic Neoplasms ; Humans ; Korea ; Rupture

Infected aortic aneurysm a life-threatening disease entity. Clostridium septicum is a very rare pathogen of infected aneurysms that carries a high mortality rate and demonstrates a strong association with an derlying colonic or hematologic neoplasm. Herein, we report a case of ruptured aortic aneurysm infected by C. septicum in a patient with colon cancer. This is the first reported case of infected aneurysm caused by C. septicum in Korea. Early diagnosis, appropriate antibiotic therapy, and prompt surgical interventions are required considering the rapid downhill progression of C. septicum-induced infected aneurysm.
Aneurysm, Infected ; Aortic Aneurysm ; Aortic Rupture ; Clostridium ; Clostridium septicum ; Colon ; Colonic Neoplasms ; Early Diagnosis ; Hematologic Neoplasms ; Humans ; Korea ; Rupture

Clostridium septicum is a toxin producing anaerobic, motile, spore-forming, spindle shaped Gram positive rod that may cause devastating systemic illness in patients with neutropenia and underlying hematologic or gastrointestinal malignancy. Clostridium septicum sepsis usually have fulminating clinical courses, and unless the appropriate antibiotics are administered soon after admission, the outcome is fatal. We experienced a case of sepsis due to Clostridium septicum, in a 65-year-old woman with peripheral T-cell lymphoma and diabetes mellitus. She was admitted due to abdominal pain, fever, chilling, nausea, vomiting and watery diarrhea, followed by rapidly progressive course. This patient was not improved by intensive care and continuous antibiotic therapy, expired at the 4th hospital day. Clostridium septicum grew from premortem blood cultures.
Abdominal Pain ; Aged ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Clostridium septicum* ; Clostridium* ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Diarrhea ; Female ; Fever ; Humans ; Critical Care ; Lymphoma, T-Cell, Peripheral ; Nausea ; Neutropenia ; Sepsis* ; Vomiting

In order to amplify alpha toxin gene of Clostridium septicum HeB01 strain, one pair of primers was designed according to the GenBank sequence, and a 1323bp alpha toxin gene fragment was obstained by PCR. Sequence analysis indicated that the homology of the nucleotid sequence of HeB01 strain to those other reference strains was more than 99.5% . The expression plasmid pQE30-alpha was constructed by inserting alpha toxin gene into the prokaryotic expression vector pQE30. The plasmid expressed when the recombinant strain M15(pQE30-alpha) was induced by IPTG. The specific 48 kD protein was detected SDS-PAGE and the immunogenicity of the expressed alpha toxin was confirmed by Western blot and ELISA. The expressed alpha toxin was transformed into alpha toxoid vaccine by adding 0.3% formaldehyde into alpha toxin. The protective immune response was proved after the mice was immunized with alpha toxoid vaccine. The results showed that the recombinanted strain M15 (pQE30-alpha) could be as a candidate of alpha toxoid vaccine to provide protective immune response against clostridium septicum infection.
Animals ; Antibodies, Bacterial ; blood ; immunology ; Bacterial Toxins ; genetics ; immunology ; metabolism ; Blotting, Western ; Cloning, Molecular ; Clostridium Infections ; immunology ; microbiology ; prevention & control ; Clostridium septicum ; genetics ; immunology ; metabolism ; Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Escherichia coli ; genetics ; Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial ; Mice ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Recombinant Proteins ; administration & dosage ; immunology ; metabolism ; Toxoids ; immunology ; Vaccination