actinomycosis

Abdominal wall actinomycosis with hepatic infiltration mimicking a malignant neoplasm.

The chronic course, extensive fibrosis and extension across anatomic barriers, mimicking actinomycosis, has not been previously reported in F.

Although Actinomycosis and Nocardiosis are often considered together when discussing systemic mycoses, they are filamentous, gram-positive, bacteria in the order of Actinomycetales, and not true fungi.

Pulmonary actinomycosis is a rare chronic infection and may cause cavitary lung lesions, lung nodules, or a pleural effusion.

A differential diagnosis of actinomycosis, botryomycosis, fungal infection, and tuberculosis was considered.{Figure 1}

Dacroadenitis was diagnosed in 2 (0.7%) cases while chronic Osteomyelitis, Abscess, inflamed lacrimal duct cyst, canaliculitis, Pemphigus Vulgaris and Actinomycosis were seen in 1 (0.4%) cases each.

In our study, when the preoperative medical records of 39 patients with actinomycosis were examined, it was found that recurrent tonsillitis was more predominant among these patients and was proportionally higher in adult patients.

of Cases Percentage (%) 1 Appendicular mass 48 48 2 Appendicular abscess 16 16 3 Ileocaecal tuberculosis 14 14 4 Carcinoma of caecum 12 12 5 Psoas abscess 5 5 6 Others * 5 5 * Small bowel carcinoma, Lymphoma, Actinomycosis, Retroperitoneal Lymphangioma.

As the symptoms of cutaneous myiasis are nonspecific, they can be confused with other symptoms such as those of actinomycosis, staphylococcal lesions, cellulitis, sebaceous cysts, leishmaniasis, tungiasis, mycosis, furunculosis, chronic mammary abscesses, tuberculosis-derived furuncular mammary lesions, malignancies, and insect bites.

The well known causes of facial swelling in cattle are Actinomycosis and Actinobacillosis but soft tissue abscesses, dental or periodontal diseases, facial bone fractures, salivary gland or sinus problems and neoplasia can also be the underlying causes of facial swelling.

Although rare, given its global prevalence, it is imperative for the clinicians to distinguish the many clinical variants of cutaneous tuberculosis and the masquerading infections--granulomatous syphilis, discoid lupus erythematosus, psoriasis, tuberculoid leprosy, sarcoidosis, actinomycosis, mycetoma, bacterial abscesses, and other skin infections--to preclude missed or delayed diagnosis [2, 3].

The expansive differential diagnosis such as epidermal cysts, furuncle, carbuncle, branchial cleft fistula, pyogenic granuloma, salivary gland fistula, actinomycosis, thyroglossal tract fistula, basal cell and squamous cell carcinoma, osteomyelitis, and foreign body reaction further compound the diagnostic dilemma [5].