[A case of untreated systemic lupus erythematosus presenting with listerial meningitis]

A fourty-year-old woman suffered from meningitis and sepsis of Listeria monocytogenes, after presenting with several early symptoms from systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Listeriosis often causes central nervous system infection with relatively high mortality rate. This infection commonly affects patients with predisposing factor, such as immunosuppression. According to the previous reports, all of the previous reports, all of listeriosis with SLE received immunosuppressive therapy. To the best of our knowledge, no case of listeriosis has ever been reported in SLE patients without medication to SLE, although most of the previously reported cases of listeriosis with collagen disease accompanied SLE. We presume that suppression of T cell-mediated immunity, which is characteristic of SLE, plays a role as a predisposing factor in listerial infection.