A patient with psittacosis from a pigeon: A reminder of the importance of detailed interviews and relative bradycardia
Sayato Fukui,
Wataru Kawamura,
Yuki Uehara,
Toshio Naito
Affiliations
Sayato Fukui
Department of Internal Medicine, Kasukabe Medical Center, Saitama, Japan; Department of General Medicine, Juntendo University Faculty of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan; Corresponding author at: Juntendo University Faculty of Medicine, Department of General Medicine, Juntendo University School of Medicine, 2-1-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8421, Japan.
Wataru Kawamura
Department of Internal Medicine, Kasukabe Medical Center, Saitama, Japan
Yuki Uehara
Department of General Medicine, Juntendo University Faculty of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan; Department of Clinical Laboratory, St Luke's International Hospital, Tokyo, Japan; Department of Microbiology, Juntendo University Faculty of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
Toshio Naito
Department of General Medicine, Juntendo University Faculty of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
A 43-year-old man was brought to our hospital with fever. The initial diagnosis was bacterial pneumonia, and ampicillin/sulbactam was administered. However, defervescence was not achieved, and relative bradycardia was observed. Detailed history-taking revealed that the patient had been involved in caring for a wild pigeon before hospitalization. We changed the antimicrobial therapy to minocycline and the patient’ s condition improved. Chlamydophila psittaci antibody was subsequently found to be increased four-fold, and psittacosis was diagnosed. This case acts a reminder to clinicians of the importance of both the history of exposure to any birds and vital signs, including relative bradycardia.
