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BALAMUTHIA MANDRILLARIS MENINGOENCEPHALITIS: THE FIRST CASE IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

We present a case of 23-year-old man with acute meningoencephalitis, accompanied by inflammation of a nasal ulcer. He had been healthy until six months prior to admission to the hospital when he had a motorcycle accident. A star-shaped wound at his nose was incurred after falling into a swamp. A computed tomogram of the brain showed two nonenhancing hypodense lesions at the left caudate nucleus and the right parietal lobe, ependymitis and leptomeningeal enhancement. A skin biopsy showed chronic noncaseous granulomatous inflammation without demonstrated microorganisms. The patient did not respond to the empirical treatment with cloxacillin, ceftriaxone, and amphotericin B, and eventually died on the thirteenth day of hospitalization. At autopsy, hematoxylin and eosin–stained brain sections showed a chronic necrotizing inflammation with numerous amebic trophozoites and rare cysts. Definitive identification of Balamuthia mandrillaris was made by fluorescent immunohistochemical analysis. There were 10 Naegleria fowleri primary amebic meningoencephalitis, eight Acanthamoeba granulomatous amebic encephalitis, and three Acanthamoeba meningitis in Thailand. To our knowledge, this case is the first reported case of B. mandrillaris in Southeast Asia.

Received August 27, 2003. Accepted for publication October 30, 2003.

Acknowledgments: We are grateful to Dr. Elisabeth J. Rushing, the Assistant Chairperson, and Dr. Glenn D. Sandberg (Department of Neuropathology and Ophthalmic Pathology, United States Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Washington DC) for kindly arranging to have the fluorescent immunohistochemical analysis performed at the National Center of Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta, GA).

Authors’ addresses: Poj Intalapaporn and Chusana Suankratay, Section of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand, Telephone: 66-2-256-4249, Fax: 66-2-256-4578, E-mail: schusana{at}hotmail.com. Shanop Shuangshoti and Somboon Keelawat, Department of Pathology, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand. Kammant Phantumchinda, Section of Neurology, Department of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand. Henry Wilde, Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute, Bangkok 10330, Thailand.