Nocardiosis in a patient with primary anti-phospholipid syndrome

Antiphospholipid syndrome is an autoimmune disease that is characterised by tendency to thrombosis, obstetrical and hematological complications. Corticosteroids may be useful for therapy of some features of this syndrome, such as thrombocytopenia. Nocardia is an important opportunistic infectious agent in immunocompromised hosts, i.e. in patients taking corticosteroids. It is important to be aware of these rare complications, which are correlated with the prognosis. In this paper, we report a patient with primary anti-phospholipid syndrome treated by corticosteroid, who developed disseminated nocardiosis.