Acute Cervical Lymphadenitis Caused by Mycobacterium florentinum | CDC EID

EID Journal Home > Volume 16, Number 9–September 2010

Volume 16, Number 9–September 2010
Letter
Acute Cervical Lymphadenitis Caused by Mycobacterium florentinum
Salma S. Syed, Omolara Aderinboye, Kimberly E. Hanson, and Eric D. Spitzer
Author affiliations: State University of New York, Stony Brook, New York, USA (S.S. Syed, O. Aderinboye, E.D. Spitzer); University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA (K.E. Hanson); and Associated Regional and University Pathologists Laboratories, Salt Lake City (K.E. Hanson)

To the Editor: The incidence of nontuberculous mycobacterium (NTM) lymphadenitis appears to be rising, likely because of improved diagnostic techniques. Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare is the most common etiologic agent of NTM lymphadenitis in children (1,2). Newer diagnostic methods, including DNA sequencing, have identified cervical adenitis secondary to other slow-growing species (M. lentiflavum, M. interjectum, and, most recently M. florentinum in 2005) (3–6). We report a case of acute cervical lymphadenitis caused by M. florentinum in a child and briefly describe 4 other patients, both children and adults, with positive culture growth. These results suggest that M. florentinum infection is more widespread than previously appreciated.

A previously healthy girl, 3 years of age, came to our outpatient clinic with 2 months of bilateral cervical lymph node enlargement preceded by low-grade fevers for a few days. She had previously received clindamycin for 10 day without improvement. A tuberculin skin test showed 10 mm of induration, and results of a chest radiograph were negative. Both parents were from El Salvador, but the child was born in the United States and had never traveled abroad.

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