What is the most common clinical manifestation of Listeria infections?

[Viza]

What is the most common clinical manifestation of Listeria infections?

[Diagnostic]

Clinical manifestations including fever, altered mentation, headache, meningeal signs, focal neurologic signs, and seizures.

[Sarre]

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1.Gastroenteritis

2.Bacteremia

L. monocytogenes septicemia presents with fever, chills, and myalgias/arthralgias and cannot be differentiated from septicemia involving other organisms. Meningeal symptoms, focal neurologic findings, or mental status changes may suggest the diagnosis. Bacteremia is documented in 70–90% of cancer patients with listeriosis. A nonspecific flulike illness with fever is a common presentation in pregnant women. Endocarditis of prosthetic and native valves is an uncommon complication, with reported fatality rates of 35–50% in case series. A lumbar puncture is often prudent, although not necessary, in pregnant women without central nervous system (CNS) symptoms.

3.Meningitis

L. monocytogenes causes ~5–10% of all cases of community-acquired bacterial meningitis in adults in the United States.


4.Other Focal Infections

Focal infections of visceral organs; the eye; the pleural, peritoneal and pericardial spaces; and the bones and joints have all been reported.

5.Infection in Pregnancy and Neonatal Infection

Listeriosis in pregnancy is a severe and important infection. The usual presentation is a nonspecific acute or subacute febrile illness with myalgias, arthralgias, backache, and headache. Pregnant women with listeriosis are usually bacteremic. This syndrome should prompt blood cultures, especially in the absence of another reasonable explanation. Involvement of the CNS is rare in the absence of other risk factors. Preterm delivery is a common complication, and the diagnosis may be made only postpartum. As many as 70–90% of fetuses from infected women can become infected. Prepartum treatment of bacteremic women enhances the chances of delivery of a healthy infant. Women usually do well after delivery: maternal deaths are very rare, even when the diagnosis is made late in pregnancy or postpartum. Overall mortality rates for fetuses infected in utero approach 50% in some series; among live-born neonates treated with antibiotics, mortality rates are much lower (~20%). Granulomatosis infantiseptica is an overwhelming listerial fetal infection with miliary microabscesses and granulomas, most often in the skin, liver, and spleen. Less severe neonatal infection acquired in utero presents at birth. "Late-onset" neonatal illness typically develops ~10 days after delivery but can occur up to a month postpartum. Mothers of infants with late-onset disease are not ill