jwissmille

Human Monocytic Ehrlichiosis Presenting as Acute Appendicitis During
Pregnancy.

FULL ARTICLE AT:
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/CID...94/020194.html

ABSTRACT:
Human Monocytic Ehrlichiosis Presenting as Acute Appendicitis During
Pregnancy
Ann E. Smith Sehdev,1 Paul S. Sehdev,2 Ruth Jacobs,a and J. Stephen
Dumler1
1Division of Medical Microbiology, Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins
Medical Institutions, and 2Division of Infectious Disease, Department of
Medicine, University of Maryland, Baltimore

Received 1 February 2002; revised 15 May 2002; electronically published 3
October 2002.

Human monocytic ehrlichiosis (HME) is caused by Ehrlichia chaffeensis, an
obligate intracellular bacterium that infects mononuclear phagocytic
cells. We report a unique case of HME diagnosed in a woman who presented
with abdominal pain and acute appendicitis during early pregnancy and
whose condition progressively deteriorated to adult respiratory distress
syndrome.