Multidrug Resistant Invasive Nontyphoidal Salmonella Isolated from and Masquerading Healed Tubercular Constrictive Pericarditis and Study of Virulence Markers

Among the infectious causes of pericarditis are various bacteria, viruses, fungal and parasitic infections. The course disease may progress to a chronic constrictive pattern especially with tubercular etiology. Non-typhoidal Salmonella has rarely been reported as a cause of pericarditis. We describe here a case from which the pericardial fluid from an old case of tubercular pericarditis sent for culture to microbiology laboratory grew a Salmonella typhimurium. We studied the antibiotic resistance pattern, phage type and virulence factors playing a role in the invasive nature of the pathogen since no such study from pericardial fluid was found in the literature. The isolate was sensitive only to cephalosporins and it was untypable. It showed amplification for five fimbrial operons, three colonization factors, and other genes (pef operon), gog B(Gifsy-1 encoded effector), sseI (Gifsy-2 encoded effector), sodC ( the periplasmic [copper and zinc Cu, Zn ]-superoxide dismutase) & sopE (a guanine nucleotide exchange factors). The present case highlights the need for early detection of the exact causative agent and serovar in management, the likelihood of a different etiological agent other than the original to be kept in mind for timely management and the highly resistant pattern of non-typhoidal Salmonella (NTS) limiting the therapeutic options as in our case to only cephalosporins. The genes encoded from the NTS might be required for invasive cardiac manifestation in humans.