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Yersinia pseudotuberculosis causing abscesses in a 31-year-old patient in the post-immunosuppression period after allogeneic HSCT

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 43, pages 515–516 (2009)Cite this article

The risk of infection after allo-SCT is determined by the underlying disease, intensity of earlier treatments and by the chosen transplantation modality. High risk of infection even after hematopoietic reconstitution is characteristic compared with patients undergoing conventional chemotherapy or auto-SCT. On account of mucosal damage, functional deficiencies of granulocytes, functional asplenia and qualitative and quantitative T- and B-cell deficiencies, late infections after allo-SCT (after day +100 following transplantation) predominate in patients with chronic GVHD. In the absence of GVHD, immunosuppressive treatment is tapered and finally discontinued. In these patients, infectious complications are supposed to occur rarely. We describe a patient who underwent HLA-mismatched, unrelated allo-SCT because of bcr-abl-positive ALL and developed severe hepatic abscesses after immunosuppression had been discontinued 1 year earlier.

A 31-year-old patient was transferred to our facility from an outside hospital where he was admitted because of a 2-week history of abdominal discomfort that was accompanied by nausea and emesis. Three days before admission, the patient developed fever up to 39 °C. He also reported a weight loss of 4 kg within the last 3 weeks. The patient had a history of a bcr-abl-positive pre-B-ALL that had been diagnosed in 2004. After induction chemotherapy and one course of chemoconsolidation, he underwent HLA-mismatched, unrelated SCT. His immunosuppression had been tapered and consecutively stopped approximately 1 year before the current admission.

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  1. Medizinische Klinik und Poliklinik 1, Universitätsklinikum Carl Gustav Carus Dresden, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany,

    F Stölzel, S Pursche, S Brückner, M Bornhäuser, G Ehninger & M Schaich

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  1. F Stölzel
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  3. S Brückner
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Correspondence to F Stölzel.

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Stölzel, F., Pursche, S., Brückner, S. et al. Yersinia pseudotuberculosis causing abscesses in a 31-year-old patient in the post-immunosuppression period after allogeneic HSCT. Bone Marrow Transplant 43, 515–516 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/bmt.2008.357

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