Bacillary angiomatosis
| Bacillary angiomatosis | |
|---|---|
| Classification and external resources | |
| Specialty | infectious disease |
| ICD-10 | A44.8 (ILDS A44.85), B20.1 (ILDS B20.11) |
| ICD-9-CM | 088.0 |
| DiseasesDB | 2173 |
| eMedicine | derm/44 |
| Patient UK | Bacillary angiomatosis |
| MeSH | D016917 |
Bacillary angiomatosis (BA) is a form of angiomatosis associated with bacteria of the Bartonella genus.
It is caused by either Bartonella henselae or Bartonella quintana.
It can manifest in people with AIDS and rarely appears in those who are immunocompetent.
BA is characterised by the proliferation of blood vessels, resulting in them forming tumour-like masses in the skin and other organs.
Cutaneous BA is characterised by the presence of lesions on or under the skin. Appearing in numbers from one to hundreds, these lesions may take several forms:
While cutaneous BA is the most common form of BA, BA can also affect several other parts of the body, such as the brain, bone, bone marrow, lymph nodes, gastrointestinal tract, respiratory tract, spleen and liver. Symptoms vary depending on which parts of the body are affected; for example, those whose livers are affected may have an enlarged liver and fever, while those with osseous BA will experience intense pain in the affected area.
While curable, BA is potentially fatal if not treated.
BA responds dramatically to several antibiotics. Usually, erythromycin will cause the skin lesions to gradually fade away in the next four weeks, resulting in complete recovery. Doxycycline may also be used. However, if the infection does not respond to either of these, the medication is usually changed to tetracycline. If the infection is serious, then a bactericidal medication may be coupled with the antibiotics.
If a cat is carrying Bartonella henselae, then it may not exhibit any symptoms. Cats may be bacteremic for weeks to years, but infection is more common in young cats. Transmission to humans is thought to occur via flea feces inoculated into a cat scratch or bite, and transmission between cats occurs only in the presence of fleas. Therefore, elimination and control of fleas in the cat's environment are key to prevention of infection in both cats and humans.
The condition that later became known as bacillary angiomatosis was first described by Stoler and associates in 1983. Being unaware of its infectious origin, it was originally called epithelioid angiomatosis. Following documentation of bacilli in Warthin-Starry stains and by electron microscopy in a series of cases by LeBoit and colleagues, the term bacillary angiomatosis was widely adopted.
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