Infections in the immunocompromised patient, about a case of Systemic Sclerosis
Keywords:
Scleroderma Systemic, Mycobacterium tuberculosisAbstract
Introduction: Sclerosis is a chronic, degenerative, disabling and lethal disease that affects thousands of people.
Its variable clinical presentation has made it a diagnostic challenge, delaying timely treatment. In Ecuador,
exact statistical data on the number of patients with this pathology are not known. The use of immunosuppression
therapies to treat this disease has made the patient an easy target for opportunistic pathogen infections
that often go unnoticed. Tuberculosis infection is of high concern in these patients, especially when
corticosteroid therapy plus immunosuppressants are administer for a long time.
Objective: To describe the effects of prolonged use of immunosuppressants and susceptibility to infections by
opportunistic pathogens.
Material and methods: Retrospective descriptive study, clinical case presentation of a female patient diagnosed
with multiple sclerosis with prolonged immunosuppressive treatment who is incidentally diagnosed
with tuberculosis.
Results: The case of a patient is presented of a 46-year-old female patient with a history of systemic sclerosis
who was treated 18 years ago with prednisone 5 and 10 mg, mycophenolate mofetil 500 mg every day, with a
history of cancer, who was admitted after presenting varied symptoms with ineffective treatment. Chest tomography
was performed, showing cavitated cystic lesion in the left lung field, with an apparent infiltrate,
renal function, electrolytes and arterial blood gas within normal parameters and a positive result sputum
BAAR, for which antifimic treatment was started.
Conclusions: It is of great importance that all health professionals who care for this type of patient have full
knowledge of this pathology, of possible complications and the risk of latent infection due to the disease or
due to immunosuppression therapies. Emphasis should be placed on carrying out strategies and protocols for
the correct monitoring of patients within the National Health System.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
