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Park, Kim, Kim, Kim, Woo, Hyun, Shim, and Lee: A Case of Tongue Actinomycosis
Case Report
Infection & Chemotherapy

Infection & Chemotherapy 2011; 43(1): 72-75.

Published online: 28 February 2011

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3947/ic.2011.43.1.72

A Case of Tongue Actinomycosis

Sun-Man Park1, Cheol-Hong Kim1, Young-Jin Kim1, Jae-Hyun Kim1, Heungjeong Woo1, In-Gyu Hyun1, Jung-Weon Shim2, Jae-Jung Lee3

1Department of Internal Medicine, Hallym University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.

2Department of Pathology, Hallym University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.

3Department of General Surgery, Hallym University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.

Correspondence to Cheol-Hong Kim, M.D., Department of Internal Medicine, Hallym University Hangang Sacred Heart Hospital, 94-200 Yeongdeungpo-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul 150-719, Korea. Tel: +82-2-2639-5787, Fax: +82-2-2677-9756, kimch2002@hallym.or.kr

Received 21 July 2010       Revised 18 October 2010       Accepted 18 October 2010

Copyright © 2011 by The Korean Society of Infectious Diseases and Korean Society for Chemotherapy

(open-access):

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Actinomyces israelii is a normal flora of the oral cavity and gastrointestinal tract, and can cause chronic suppurative granuloma. We report here on a case of tongue actinomycosis. The patient was a 71-year old woman who had undergone surgery for rectal cancer 4 years previously. During the follow-up study using PET-CT, hypermetabolic activities were recognized at the lung hilum, mediastinum and tongue base. Bronchoscopic biopsy sample of the tongue base ulcer revealed histopathologically sulfur granule and aggregations of filamentous bacteria was diagnosed as actinomycosis of the tongue.

Keywords: Actinomycosis, Tongue

Figures and Tables

Figure 1
PET-CT reveals intense hypermetabolic activities at the tongue and thoracic lymph nodes.
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Figure 2
A bronchoscopic photograph showing an ulceration of the tongue base with whitish plaques.
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Figure 3
The bronchoscopic biopsy shows organized aggregations of filamentous bacteria forming sulfur granules (H&E stain, left: ×40, right: ×400).
ic-43-72-g003

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