Chronic Q Fever: Relevance of Serology

Chronic Q fever: relevance of serology.

To the Editor—We read with interest the recent paper on Q fever by Healy et al [1], which describes the results of initial and follow-up serologic analysis after an outbreak of Q fever, and the discrepancy in test results obtained from different reference laboratories. This article raises the problem of management of asymptomatic patients with a chronic serological profile (phase 1 serum level ...

Chronic Q fever endocarditis.

Eight patients with chronic Q fever endocarditis were treated with tetracycline for up to 40 months. In addition, five of these patients received co-trimoxazole. Six patients had prosthetic valves. Two patients who had Q fever endocarditis on their native valves required valve replacement because of haemodynamic difficulties: in only one did the Q fever endocarditis contribute to the haemodynam...

Chronic Q fever endocarditis.

Chronic Q fever with mixed cryoglobulinaemia.

A 47 year old woman presented with a six month history of vasculitic rash, splenomegaly, and cardiac murmurs. Investigations showed the presence of mixed cryoglobulinaemia and raised titres to Coxiella burnetii consistent with chronic Q fever infection. The patient was treated with tetracycline (1 g four times a day).

Localizing chronic Q fever: a challenging query

BACKGROUND Chronic Q fever usually presents as endocarditis or endovascular infection. We investigated whether 18F-FDG PET/CT and echocardiography were able to detect the localization of infection. Also, the utility of the modified Duke criteria was assessed. METHODS Fifty-two patients, who had an IgG titre of  ≥ 1024 against C. burnetii phase I ≥ 3 months after primary infection or a positiv...