The case of malignancy mimicking legionella pneumonia
Ali Karakuş 1 * , Ersin Şükrü Erden, Cenk Babayiğit, Eyüp Büyükkaya, Mehmet Mustafa Akın, Muhammet Murat Çelik, Veyis Taşın
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1 Mustafa Kemal Üniversitesi Tayfur Ata Sökmen Tıp Fakültesi Acil Tıp AD, Hatay, Turkey* Corresponding Author

Abstract

Legionella pneumophila is a bacterium, which can grow in water pipe networks and climate systems. Contamination occurs by aspiration of infected water or aerosol inhalation. It is usually presented with fever, bradycardia, and change in mental status, hyponatremia, elevation of liver enzymes and deterioration of renal function. The definite diagnosis is established by detection of the antigens and cultivating in the culture medium. Also, malign lung tumors can encounter with the same clinical findings, so lung cancer should be remembered in differential diagnosis. The patient hospitalized for the Legionella pneumophila due to the physical examination and laboratory findings during the first evaluation in the emergency department. However, further examinations pointed to the cancer. We aimed to emphasize the probability of malignant tumors in terms of hyponatremia, increase in the liver enzymes, and failure in the renal functions, which were usually experienced in emergency unit.

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Case Report

J Clin Exp Invest, 2013, Volume 4, Issue 3, 390-392

https://doi.org/10.5799/ahinjs.01.2013.03.0311

Publication date: 12 Sep 2013

Article Views: 1882

Article Downloads: 1132

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