F-18-FDG PET/CT as a central tool in the shift from chronic Q fever to Coxiella burnetii persistent focalized infection: A consecutive case series

Carole Eldin (1) , Clea Melenotte , Matthieu Million (1) , Serge Cammilleri (2, 3) , Albert Sotto (4) , Antoine Elsendoorn , Franck Thuny (5) , Hubert Lepidi (1) , France Roblot (6, 7) , Thierry Weitten , Souad Assaad , Anissa Bouaziz (8) , Claire Chapuzet , Guillaume Gras , Anne-Sophie Labussiere , Cecile Landais , Pascale Longuet (9) , Agathe Masseau (10) , Olivier Mundler (11, 3) , Didier Raoult (1)

1 URMITE - Unité de Recherche sur les Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales Emergentes
2 AMU MED - Aix-Marseille Université - Faculté de médecine
3 Service de médecine nucléaire [Marseille]
4 Systèmes de sécrétion de type IV et virulence bactérienne
5 VRCM - Vascular research center of Marseille
6 Univ Hosp Poitiers, Dept Infect Dis
7 PHAR [Poitiers] - Pharmacologie des anti-infectieux
8 Service de Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales
9 Hôpital Bichat - Claude Bernard
10 Service de médecine interne [Nantes]
11 TIMONE - Hôpital de la Timone [CHU - APHM]

Because Q fever is mostly diagnosed serologically, localizing a persistent focus of Coxiella burnetii infection can be challenging. F-18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (F-18-FDG PET/CT) could be an interesting tool in this context.We performed a retrospective study on patients diagnosed with C burnetii infection, who had undergone F-18-FDG PET/CT between 2009 and 2015. When positive F-18-FDG PET/CT results were obtained, we tried to determine if it changed the previous diagnosis by discovering or confirming a suspected focus of C burnetii infection.One hundred sixty-seven patients benefited from F-18-FDG PET/CT. The most frequent clinical subgroup before F-18-FDG PET/CT was patients with no identified focus of infection, despite high IgG1 serological titers (34%). For 59% (n=99) of patients, a hypermetabolic focus was identified. For 62 patients (62.6%), the positive F-18-FDG PET/CT allowed the diagnosis to be changed. For 24 of them, (38.7%), a previously unsuspected focus of infection was discovered. Forty-two (42%) positive patients had more than 1 hypermetabolic focus. We observed 21 valvular foci, 34 vascular foci, and a high proportion of osteoarticular localizations (n=21). We also observed lymphadenitis (n=27), bone marrow hypermetabolism (n=11), and 9 pulmonary localizations.We confirmed that(18)F-FDG PET/CT is a central tool in the diagnosis of C burnetii focalized persistent infection. We proposed new diagnostic scores for 2 main clinical entities identified using F-18-FDG PET/CT: osteoarticular persistent infections and lymphadenitis.

Domaines: Maladies infectieuses

Carole Eldin, Clea Melenotte, Matthieu Million, Serge Cammilleri, Albert Sotto, et al.. F-18-FDG PET/CT as a central tool in the shift from chronic Q fever to Coxiella burnetii persistent focalized infection: A consecutive case series. Medicine, 2016, 95 (34), ⟨10.1097/MD.0000000000004287⟩. ⟨hal-01455594⟩