Successful medical management of a case of Austrian syndrome—an uncommon entity in the modern antibiotic era: a case report

BACKGROUND: Austrian syndrome—the combination of meningitis, pneumonia and infective endocarditis due to Streptococcus pneumoniae infection, is a rare entity. In literature only a few hundreds of cases are reported but surprisingly we did not find any report on Austrian syndrome in or from Bangladesh. CASE PRESENTATION: We report the case history of a middle aged Bangladeshi diabetic man, who had fever, cough, shortness of breath and altered mentation. He had tachycardia, bi-basal lung crepitations, new cardiac murmurs and meningism. Diagnostic work-up revealed Austrian syndrome. Because of the rarity of the condition, this case is reported. CONCLUSION: A case of pneumococcal pneumonia or meningitis should raise suspicion of concomitant endocarditis and Austrian syndrome, specially if there is heart failure, as early recognition and treatment may appear life-saving. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13104-017-2801-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.