[Successful treatment of a patient with fulminant psittacosis]

A previously healthy 40-year-old woman was admitted with severe dyspnea, cough and slight fever. Chest X-ray film revealed bilateral widespread opaque infiltration with ground glass shadows around it. The laboratory examination showed moderate hepatic and muscular injury with disseminated intravascular coagulation. In addition her arterial blood gas showed severe hypoxemia (PaO2: 25 Torr under room air). Moreover, about 1 week prior to admission, 2 baby budgerigars she had been raising for half a year died. Because of this history and multi-organ injuries, this disease was considered to be acute pneumonia owing to fulminant psittacosis causing acute respiratory failure. On the first day of admission, she was intubated and ventilated mechanically with an oxygen concentration (FIO2) of 100%. Subsequently, treatment with intravenous minocycline (400 mg/day), heparin for D.I.C. and corticosteroid were started. Abnormal findings in both chest X-ray and several laboratory parameters improved gradually though fever continued for a week. On the 14th day of her hospital stay, she was weaned from the ventilator successfully and the administration of corticosteroid and heparin tapered. On the 41st day, she was discharged without any symptoms. Results of complement fixation (CF) antibodies against chlamydia on paired sera showed a significant rise from 1:32 to 1:256. Moreover, both IgG and IgM antibodies for Chlamydia psittaci with microplate immunofluorescent antibody technique (MFA) showed an 8 times' rise during 10 days after admission. The definitive diagnosis was made with positive isolation of C. psittaci from both the throat swab of this patient and the spleen and liver of the dead budgerigar by the cell culture method. Psittacosis should always be borne in mind as a possible cause of fulminant pneumonia with acute respiratory failure, and such a situation can be handled successfully if emergency care including mechanical ventilation is available.