Soft tissue tumors - Bacillary angiomatosis

Home Chapter Home Jobs Conferences Fellowships Books

Soft tissue tumors

Normal / benign

Bacillary angiomatosis

Reviewer: Vijay Shankar, M.D. (see Reviewers page)
Revised: 25 February 2013, last major update November 2012
Copyright: (c) 2003-2013, PathologyOutlines.com, Inc.

General
=========================================================================

● Opportunistic infection of immunocompromised, first described in AIDS, manifesting as vascular proliferations in bone, CNS, skin, other organs
● Rarely imunocompetent individuals (Indian J Dermatol Venereol Leprol 2010;76:682)
● Caused by infection with Bartonella species (gram negative rods), either Bartonella henselae (causes cat-scratch disease, reservoir in cats, vector is cat flea), B. quintana (cause of trench fever during WW I, reservoir in humans, vector is human body louse) or other species; transmitted via traumatic inoculation of skin
● Bacillary peliosis: related vascular lesion of liver and spleen

Case reports
=========================================================================

● 23 year old HIV+ woman with disseminated disease (Rev Soc Bras Med Trop 2011;44:641)
● 59 year old immunocompetent woman with no exposure to cats (Indian J Dermatol Venereol Leprol 2010;76:682)
● 66 year old woman with onset after chemotherapy for CLL (J Med Microbiol 2011;60:142)

Treatment
=========================================================================

● Erythromycin

Clinical images
=========================================================================

**Skin: nodules with ulceration**

**Skin: erythematous nodular lesions**

**Skin: post CLL chemotherapy**

**Skin: at site of burn**

Gross description
=========================================================================

● Moist, eruptive, cutaneous lesion

Micro description
=========================================================================

● Acute neutrophilic inflammation with vascular proliferation and prominent endothelial cells with nuclear atypia and mitotic figures
● Nuclear dust and granular material (bacteria) present
● Bacteria highlighted by silver stain

Micro images
=========================================================================

**Dermal lobular vascular proliferation with swollen endothelial cells and bacteria (Warthin-Starry)**

**Warthin-Starry stain**

**Mixed inflammation, capillary proliferation**

Differential diagnosis
=========================================================================

● Angiosarcoma
● Kaposi sarcoma
● Pyogenic granuloma

End of Soft tissue tumors > Normal / benign > Bacillary angiomatosis

This information is intended for physicians and related personnel, who understand that medical information is often imperfect, and must be interpreted in the context of a patient's clinical data using reasonable medical judgment. This website should not be used as a substitute for the advice of a licensed physician.

All information on this website is protected by copyright of PathologyOutlines.com, Inc. Information from third parties may also be protected by copyright. Please contact us at copyrightPathOut@gmail.com with any questions (click here for other contact information).